Mr. Speaker, as all members are aware, there has been an intense campaign by anti-sealing lobby groups using a 1-800 number and television ads. Members of the public are provided with scripts and told to phone their local MP.
My colleague the member for Mississauga West took objection to this practice and returned all phone calls directed to him. In addition he wrote a letter to the Toronto Star correcting certain factual errors in the presentation.
The response he received from the animal rights group was a letter from their lawyer instructing him to engage counsel. In other words, do not speak out on this issue, do not correct factual errors and do not ask pointed questions or we will sue you.
This is an outrageous abuse of a member's freedom of speech and duties and cannot be tolerated in a civil society. It is a disgraceful attempt to silence a member's right to speak on a subject of interest to Canadians. Simply put, it is wrong.