PC MPP Kaleed Rasheed, left, stands with fellow Conservative MPP Vic Fedeli as they scrum with the media following Question Period at Queen's Park, in Toronto on Tuesday, July 31, 2018. The PC Government has refused to answer questions from the official opposition after having accused NDP House Leader Gilles Bisson of mocking Rasheed's accent. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young

TORONTO — A shouting match so nasty the speaker of the legislature recessed question period and left the chamber, has ended in a stand-off between the government and official opposition.

Mid-way through question period on Tuesday, Premier Doug Ford accused NDP House Leader Gilles Bisson of mimicking the accent of a PC MPP who was asking a question.

Kaleed Rasheed, a Pakistani-Canadian immigrant, was in the middle of lobbing the friendly question to his colleague Municipal Affairs Minister Steve Clark when Ford called Bisson out for the apparent mimicking.

That spiralled into the leaders of Ontario’s two largest political parties hurling accusations at each other across the floor of the house. NDP Leader Andrea Horwath yelled at Ford to “take it back” while the premier called in Bisson to recuse himself and said his comments were “disgusting.”

Tuesday’s question period is the culmination of increasing levels of attacks and heckling during the daily exchange.

Bisson, who has a Franco-Ontarian accent, flatly denies the accusation, Speaker Ted Arnott said he did not hear Bisson mimicking anyone and it was not picked up by the microphones in the house.

However, Finance Minister Vic Fedeli said he and other caucus members heard Bisson mimicking Rasheed.

Interim Liberal Leader John Fraser said the onus is on the premier to set the tone in the legislature, adding that the “chaos” that marked Toronto City Hall when the Ford brothers were in office has clearly been brought to Queen’s Park.

Ford and Horwath ignored four attempts by Arnott to bring them order before he called a recess.

Fedeli said Conservative MPPs and cabinet ministers heard Bisson mocking the question posed by Rasheed. According to Fedeli, Bisson repeated the question that Rasheed was asking including.

Fedeli said he would not repeat the question.

The transcript shows Rasheed thanking the minister for municipal affairs for his response to a previous question and saying “I’m sure taxpayers would rather have their councillors at city hall taking actions to improve life for everyone—” before he is cut off by the shouting match between Ford and Horwath.

“I watched him, he sits directly across from me, I could hear him and see him loudly and clearly,” Fedeli said about Bisson.

But Bisson told reporters the only heckle he made at that point was to say “thank you for cancelling democracy.” He said he would never “make disparaging comments about anybody in regards to their accents or where they come from.”

Horwath went on to accuse Ford of telling “lies” about what he heard Bisson say. “He’s not telling the truth now, and the disgusting thing about it is he’s trying to ruin the reputation of a longstanding MPP,” she said.

House Leader Todd Smith told reporters the government will not be answering any questions from the NDP until they apologize, which Horwath has said they won’t do because there is nothing to apologize for.

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