Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to rise on a point of order, which I believe is a matter which not only undermines but challenges the fundamental authority of the House. I refer specifically to an action taken in the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics on Thursday, February 29, at the meeting at 3:30 p.m.
I am reading from the minutes. There was a motion of the committee that was agreed to, and which I reported to the House on Friday, as follows:
That the Committee report to the House that it is finished with the witnesses and information gathering phase of the Mulroney Airbus settlement and recommends that a public inquiry be held forthwith.
I tabled that report on Friday.
However, following the adoption of that motion, there was a motion moved by the member for Dufferin—Caledon, which reads:
That pursuant to Standing Order 108(1)(a) in relation to the conflicting reports about the fundraising practices of the Liberal Party, the committee investigate the fundraising practices of the Liberal Party--
It goes on to say that it would potentially violate the Canada Elections Act. There are further details in the motion. I will table it at the end of my comments, Mr. Speaker.
This particular item I ruled out of order. My ruling was specifically that in the notice of motion by the member for Dufferin—Caledon, there was no mention of any ethical standards that may have been violated, nor was there any reference to the conflict of interest code for members. It also makes reference that there may be potential violations of the Canada Elections Act.
As the motion draws attention to the Canada Elections Act, I said to the members that Standing Order 108(3)(a)(vi) mandates that the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs is responsible to review and report on all matters relating to the election of members of the House of Commons. Accordingly, I ruled the motion out of order.
The chair's ruling was challenged by the member for Dufferin—Caledon and, indeed, the chair was overturned. As a consequence, that particular motion is now an order of business of the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics, which I chair.
The committee also then passed a motion, which states, according to the minutes on the website of the committee, “That in relation to the motion adopted by the committee”, i.e., in regard to the fundraising practices of the Liberal Party adopted by the committee, “that the committee proceed with the study immediately”. Indeed, speaking to that, it was before any other business, and therein lies the problem.
Mr. Speaker, Standing Order 108, as you know, lays out the mandate of all the standing committees. It also lays out specific responsibilities and you will indeed see that in Standing Order 108(3)(a)(vi) the issue with regard to the Canada Elections Act is specifically a matter under the purview of the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs. You also know, Mr. Speaker, that that standing committee is having some difficulty dealing with another matter, referred to as the in and out matter.
It would appear to me that the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics has decided to pursue a matter of business which is not included specifically in its mandate, nor generally in the mandate of this committee and in fact is specifically in the mandate of another committee. As a consequence, the actions of this committee are effectively to disregard and ignore Standing Order 108 in its entirety, which lays out the mandates of committees.
The consequences of this are very serious. It means that any committee could effectively do anything it wanted to, notwithstanding Standing Order 108. What is the point of having Standing Order 108? To allow this order of business to proceed improperly in the ethics committee would be to admit that Standing Order 108 is moot and should be deleted from the Standing Orders. That is absolutely ridiculous. It is the House itself that made the determination as to the contents of Standing Order 108, for good reason. Any changes to Standing Order 108 must be made by the House or by special committee with the approval of the House.
There is substantial jurisprudence on this question and I would be pleased to table it with the Speaker.
There are two consequences I want to raise specifically with the House. The first, as I have mentioned, is that it would render Standing Order 108 irrelevant. The second consequence is very serious and it has to do with the Mulroney-Schreiber investigation.
Mr. Speaker, as you know, the committee has conducted its hearings. Last Friday I tabled a report indicating that we had completed our witness phase. The committee agreed that the House should recommend to the government that the public inquiry proceed.
The same day, however, there was an opposition day motion and there were speeches on this very item, that the government proceed with a public inquiry on the Mulroney-Schreiber affair. I quote from the speech of the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs and Minister of Western Economic Diversification:
To insist on the one hand that the committee hold these hearings and then not take them to their logical conclusion is irresponsible.
Members should recall that the Prime Minister asked Professor Johnston to finalize his recommendations on the terms of reference for the public inquiry once the committee has completed its work.
The parliamentary secretary has basically said in his argument that the public inquiry should not proceed until the committee has tabled its final report to the House.
The Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics has adopted a motion, followed up by another motion, saying that this is the matter we shall deal with. Effectively, it has put a roadblock in front of me. I cannot bring a draft report of the Mulroney-Schreiber hearings before the House because of this matter. The government is saying on one hand that it does not want a public inquiry until it gets the final report, but in committee government members have prohibited the chair from arranging to have the report come before the committee and therefore, I am unable to report to the House. The committee is unable to do its job.
The Speaker himself issued a warrant to hold Mr. Schreiber from extradition until these proceedings were done. It was that important. I also issued a summons for Mr. Schreiber's attendance before committee. When Mr. Schreiber appeared before us on February 25, the last time, at the end of his testimony and the end of the meeting, I specifically noted to him that pursuant to the warrant and the summons issued by the Speaker and myself, he was not being released and in fact remains under the charge of the Speaker and the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics.
The standing committee no longer has the authority to come forward to release Mr. Schreiber pursuant to the Speaker's warrant and summons because I cannot get the motion on the floor. The government is prohibiting it. It means that if the Supreme Court rules on Thursday that Mr. Schreiber's appeal for his extradition proceedings fails, then the government, particularly the Attorney General of Canada, will not be able to extradite Mr. Schreiber because the committee and the Speaker still have charge over him pursuant to the warrant issued.
This is no simple matter. Everyone wants to see that report come to the House with our findings and conclusions. Effectively, the conclusion is people are not telling the truth and we have to go to a public inquiry to find the truth. That can be the report quite simply, but the government representatives on that committee, in committee and in debate last Friday, have argued they cannot have a public inquiry and cannot go to Dr. Johnston until there is a final report. However, they turned around in committee and said that they are blocking us from ever have a final report by an item that is not even their authority.
Finally, I simply ask you, Mr. Speaker, to order the committee not to proceed with that order of business until you make your final ruling on this matter.