Controversies

In July 2018, a former constituency office employee filed a Human Rights complaint against Smith-McCrossin, which was reviewed and deemed baseless in October 2018.^[11]

In February 2020, during the 2020 Canadian pipeline and railway protests, McCrossin tweeted: “The rail blockades must be removed today. Businesses are being affected in Cumberland North and layoffs are coming soon for many if they are not removed immediately,” said the MLA at the time, calling those blockades “illegal”.^[12]

On June 22, 2021, Smith-McCrossin incited a blockade of the Trans-Canada Highway in protest to the ongoing closures of the border. The protest was held at exit 7, 43 kilometres from the border on an off ramp. This led to her being ejected from the Progressive Conservative caucus and barred from running for the party in future elections. Nova Scotia Progressive Conservative leader Tim Houston said "As colleagues for the past four years, I owed her an opportunity to explain her actions, and the efforts she took to conceal those actions from her caucus colleagues. Unfortunately, Ms. Smith-McCrossin refused to acknowledge any wrongdoing and — when explicitly asked by her caucus — refused to apologize to Nova Scotians."^[13]

In April 2023, Smith-McCrossin asserted that a woman who once worked in her constituency office was persuaded into signing a non-disclosure agreement with the Progressive Conservative caucus when she worked there in 2018. MLA and Minister Karla MacFarlane tabled a motion to expel Smith-McCrossin from the Nova Scotia House of Assembly, a legislative concept never before heard of in Westminster-style Parliaments of Commonwealth countries, the government later relenting.^[14] Smith-McCrossin is pursuing legal action.^[15]