Karen Mackenzie
Northern News Services
Published Monday, September 17, 2007

IQALUIT - Members of the legislative assembly will meet today to discuss whether the Premier Paul Okalik should be reprimanded for profane comments he made earlier this summer to the head of the Nunavut Association of Municipalities (NAM).

Speaker Peter Kilabuk announced Sept. 14 that the house would be recalled Sept. 17 at 10 a.m.

Regular legislative sessions are scheduled to start Oct. 23, but extraordinary meetings can be called earlier when the Speaker feels there is sufficient interest or reason to do so.

Many of the members were already in town for a regular caucus meeting, so travel costs will be reduced.

A special sitting will enable MLAs to focus on the matter without the having to deal with the usual orders of the day, according to Iqaluit East MLA Ed Picco.

Okalik previously apologized to NAM President and Iqaluit Mayor Elisapee Sheutiapik as well as Lynda Gunn, the group's chief executive officer, after Sheutiapik heard him call Gunn a "f---ing bitch" at a conference in Goose Bay on June 25.

In a letter on July 9, Gunn urged the assembly to convene an emergency meeting to discuss the issue.

Rankin Inlet North MLA Tagak Curley, who ran against Okalik in the previous election, called for the premier's resignation in July.

Okalik will not comment until the actual motion is tabled, according to a representative.