I am now prepared to rule on the question of privilege raised by the hon. member for Windsor West on Monday, March 21, 2005 concerning a householder mailing to some of his constituents under the frank of the hon. member for Medicine Hat. The mailing, actually a 10 percenter in this case, was critical of the conduct of the member for Windsor West.
I would like to thank the hon. member for raising this matter, as well as for providing the Chair with a copy of the material. I would also like to thank the hon. member for Medicine Hat for his contribution on the issue.
In presenting his case, the hon. member for Windsor West charged that his privileges as a member had been breached when the member for Medicine Hat had used his franking privileges to send a householder to some of the constituents of Windsor West. The hon. member for Windsor West argued that the distributed document contained information that was factually wrong regarding his position on the gun registry and on funding for the RCMP, as well as on his voting record on these matters.
The member pointed out that he could not have voted against the gun registry in committee since he was not a member of the Standing Committee on Justice, Human Rights, Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, and that he had voted against further funding for the firearms registry in the House. He also expressed concerns about the use of tax dollars to spread false information about members, reflecting that this action might be construed as intimidating and deploring the negative effects of this document on his constituents and their opinion of him.
The hon. member noted that he had received complaints from some constituents about the document. This use of the franking privilege, he argued, was a breach of his privileges as a member, and he asked that the matter be referred to the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs for consideration.
In his comments, the hon. member for Medicine Hat noted that there was no attempt to intimidate or threaten the member for Windsor West.
First, I must clarify a technical point about the disputed mailing. It was not sent out using the franking privilege; instead, it went out as unaddressed mail charged by the post office at a bulk rate. Second, I want to explain the circumstances of this particular mailing. My officials inform me that, because of an error in labelling at the post office, the documents in question were sent to the riding of Windsor West instead of the riding of Windsor—Tecumseh.
One might infer from this error that the comments in the document relating to the record of the sitting MP were meant to refer to the hon. member for Windsor—Tecumseh and it might then appear that the inaccuracy of these comments in relation to the hon. member for Windsor West may be attributed to an administrative error rather than to the originator of the document. It seems to me that the Chair cannot determine where such responsibility for inaccuracies should lie.
Nor is the Chair ready to pronounce on whether the document in question, a copy of which has been provided to me by the hon. member for Windsor West, conforms to the guidelines on the content of householders and 10 percenters found in the Members' Manual of Allowances and Services .
The fact is that this document distributed in the riding of the hon. member for Windsor West disseminated information about the sitting member's activities and positions which the hon. member for Windsor West disputes. This may well have affected his ability to function as a member and may have had the effect of unjustly damaging his reputation with voters in his riding.
In this regard, I refer hon. members to a ruling of Speaker Fraser given on October 16, 1986 at page 405 of the Debates . While he did not find a prima facie case of privilege in that particular situation, Speaker Fraser did state that there could be cases where:
--depending upon the content of the communication sent under the frank, it could be a question of privilege if the content worked against the right of Members to free expression and the carrying out of their obligations as Members.
After due reflection on the facts of this case, I must conclude that the hon. member for Windsor West has presented on its face a convincing argument that his ability to function as a member of the House has been interfered with.
Accordingly, I find that the matter raised is of sufficient gravity that a prima facie case of privilege does exist and I invite the hon. member for Windsor to move his motion.
