Ukraine parliament erupts in a brawl, again

We always hear people in Canada complain about civility in our Parliament — certainly it seems to have gotten a lot worse over the past decade.

But thank goodness we haven't seen anything like this 'brawl' that took place in Ukraine's Parliament yesterday.

[ Related: Elizabeth May heckled by NDP, evokes Jack Layton in her tweet of disappointment ]

It was quite the altercation and included hair pulling, headlocks and even pencil throwing.

According to an article by Reuters, the fight started when Olexander Yefremov of the governing party called members of the far-right party "fascists" for booing him when he spoke in Russian. Apparently the use of the Russian language is a contentious issue in Ukraine's parliament.

Other media outlets have reported that Vitaly Klitschko — a WBC heavyweight boxing champion and member of Parliament — was in attendance but didn't appear to get involved in the fisticuffs.

This isn't the first time Ukraine's politicians got into a dust-up.

The U.K.'s Telegraph newspaper posted this video last December.

The closest brouhaha to happen in Canada's Parliament of late, was the December kerfuffle between House Leaders Peter Van Loan and Nathan Cullen which emanated from a point-of-order on a budget bill.

[ Related: Van Loan and Cullen should turn to coffee to bury proverbial hatchet ]

Incidentally, it was Defence Minister Peter MacKay to the rescue.

Are you a politics junkie?
Follow @politicalpoints on Twitter!