Gail Alexan­der

Op­po­si­tion MP Paula Gopee-Scoon was sus­pend­ed from the Par­lia­ment cham­ber for two hours by Speak­er Wade Mark on Mon­day night. The in­ci­dent oc­curred just be­fore 9 pm dur­ing Mon­day night's de­bate on a bill for $1.5 bil­lion in sup­ple­men­tal fund­ing for Gov­ern­ment. PP MP Er­rol McLeod had been speak­ing and Gopee-Scoon made a re­mark when Mark said he was hear­ing her "very clear­ly and loud­ly again."

Mark said he was ap­peal­ing to her for the sec­ond time for the evening to stop talk­ing. McLeod con­tin­ued his ad­dress, but Gopee-Scoon again in­ter­ject­ed sev­er­al brief re­marks. Mark cau­tioned her again, say­ing: "Mem­ber for Point Fortin, this is your last warn­ing, oth­er­wise I will ask you to with­draw from the cham­ber for the rest of the evening."

Gopee-Scoon spoke again and Mark then called on her to apol­o­gise to the House and with­draw the re­mark she had made. When she re­peat­ed­ly queried his state­ment, Mark in­struct­ed her to with­draw for two hours "and take a rest in the lounge." Gopee-Scoon left. An­oth­er clash al­so oc­curred lat­er in Mon­day night's de­bate be­tween Mark and PNM MP Amery Browne.