{"id":163625,"date":"2018-05-14T02:32:04","date_gmt":"2018-05-14T06:32:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=163625"},"modified":"2018-05-14T02:32:04","modified_gmt":"2018-05-14T06:32:04","slug":"andrew-scheer-says-he-spoke-to-tory-mp-falk-about-abortion-comment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/05\/14\/andrew-scheer-says-he-spoke-to-tory-mp-falk-about-abortion-comment\/","title":{"rendered":"Andrew Scheer says he spoke to Tory MP Falk about abortion comment"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"FILE:<\/a>
FILE: Scheer did not say whether Falk had been reprimanded for his comment. (Photo<\/a>: Andrew Scheer\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

SAINT-HYACINTHE, Que. — Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer said Sunday that he had spoken with MP Ted Falk, who made a controversial comment about abortion in the House of Commons, but did not confirm what he told the Manitoba politician.<\/p>\n

\u201cI spoke to Mr. Falk, but I don’t talk about internal management,\u201d he told reporters following a party meeting in Saint-Hyacinthe, Que.<\/p>\n

Scheer did not say whether Falk had been reprimanded for his comment.<\/p>\n

Falk caused a stir in question period on Wednesday when he responded to a statement by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who promised his government would always defend the right of women to have an abortion.<\/p>\n

In response, Falk yelled out: \u201cIt’s not a right!\u201d<\/p>\n

Scheer, who has said he’s personally against abortion, did not answer a question about how he reacted to Falk’s comments, nor would he say whether he personally believed abortion to be a right.<\/p>\n

Without ever using the word \u201cabortion,\u201d he repeated multiple times that a Conservative government would \u201crespect the decision of the courts\u201d on the matter.<\/p>\n

Scheer had not previously responded to Falk’s comment, which was denounced by many opposition MPs.<\/p>\n

Several Quebec Conservative MPs also spoke out against Falk, including Alain Rayes, Gerard Deltell and Sylvie Boucher.<\/p>\n

At the weekend party meeting, several Conservatives distanced themselves from Falk’s comments and said they did not reflect the party’s values.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was his own opinion, and it doesn’t reflect the party and the ideologies of party members,\u201d said Valerie Assouline, a member of the party’s national executive in Quebec.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s certain that I find it unfortunate, that he made that comment, and I don’t support the comment,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Party member Jean-Philippe Fournier, from Montreal, said it was a \u201cfalse debate, because it’s in no way in our plans to open that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Anne DeBlois, a party member from the Quebec City area, worried the fallout could have an impact on the party’s image in Quebec.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me it caused some discomfort, and I know there are some who won’t like us because of that,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m aware of that, but there are people who don’t like Justin Trudeau for other reasons,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SAINT-HYACINTHE, Que. — Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer said Sunday that he had spoken with MP Ted Falk, who made a …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":149856,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,16],"tags":[1626,19590,50882],"class_list":["post-163625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ca","category-news","tag-abortion","tag-andrew-scheer","tag-ted-falk","mauthors-melanie-marquis","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=163625"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163625\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=163625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=163625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=163625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}