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OTTAWA — The Speaker of the House of Commons has loosened what some MPs have seen as a muzzle, saying he won’t always rely on party lists of speakers if individual members rise to compete for a chance to be heard.

Andrew Scheer has delivered a careful ruling in an argument that pitted Conservative backbench MPs against their own party’s tight control over who gets to deliver brief statements in the Commons before question period each day.

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Conservative MP Mark Warawa complained last month that his privileges were breached when the party whip refused to allow him to make a statement in the House about sex-selective abortion.