Mr. Speaker, I would like to respond to the question of privilege raised yesterday by the hon. member for Ottawa—Vanier.
I listened to his question of privilege, which he raised to remind the House about his ability to access information from the government and government officials, which was being prevented by some sort of decree from the Prime Minister's Office suggesting to all civil servants, or at least the ones he was dealing with, that they could not respond directly to an inquiry from a member of Parliament.
The reason I have some sympathy for this is that I have had the exact same experience. I have approached the Department of Fisheries and Oceans or the Department of Transport to seek some basic information on behalf of constituents and been told that they are not allowed to speak to me. They say they must go through the Prime Minister's Office and that the Prime Minister's Office must first vet my question as to whether or not it is appropriate, and then vet the response as to whether it is appropriate as well. That takes the idea of civil servants into a whole new realm of definition, as if they work predominantly for the Prime Minister's Office as opposed to the Canadian people.
As a representative in the House, my friend has raised a question of privilege suggesting he is unable to perform his work and duties as a member of Parliament if the government has a policy and directive that prevents him from gaining the most simple and basic information required to answer questions on behalf of his constituents. I want to be clear: We are not talking about state secrets here, but basic, simple information that Canadians have paid for, because they in fact fund the civil service. It is not the privilege of the Prime Minister's Office to direct where those answers should go.
There are some struggles, though, that we find with this as a question of privilege. I will first quote from O'Brien and Bosc from page 109 of House of Commons Procedure and Practice, who explain:
In order to find a prima facie breach of privilege, the Speaker must be satisfied that there is evidence to support the Member’s claim that he or she has been impeded in the performance of his or her parliamentary functions and that the matter is directly related to a proceeding in Parliament.
I think the last sentence is important for all members. The test is that our work here in Parliament must be what is impeded by the actions of the government.
On May 15, 1985, Speaker Bosley gave a ruling regarding the question of privilege raised by Douglas Frith, then the hon. member for Sudbury, Ontario, who claimed that his ability to serve his constituents was being infringed or impeded by a departmental directive restricting the release of information about a government program. In his ruling, Speaker Bosley explained the following:
...it has been recognized many times in the House that a complaint about the actions or inactions of government Departments cannot constitute a question of parliamentary privilege.
He added:
...the purpose of parliamentary privilege is to protect our speech in the House, the institution itself, and the institution and Members from threats, obstructions and intimidations in the exercise of our duties.
...I would have great difficulty in finding this matter to be within the realm of parliamentary privilege.
In Speaker Bosley's ruling and also in the guides we as parliamentarians use, while this case has merit in terms of what the government is doing to members of Parliament and as a result to Canadians, it is difficult to find the exact question of privilege the member seeks.
There was a similar case on October 9, 1997. Speaker Parent gave a ruling regarding a question of privilege raised by the hon. member for Wild Rose, I believe a then Reform member and later Conservative member, concerning information allegedly denied to him by an official of the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs. Speaker Parent went on to explain:
In order to fulfill their parliamentary duties, members should of course have access to the information they require.
He continued:
The Chair is mindful of the multiple responsibilities, duties and constituency related activities of all members and of the importance they play in the work of every member of Parliament. However, my role as your Speaker is to consider only those matters that affect the parliamentary work of members.
He went on to say that:
I have concluded that this case constitutes a grievance on the part of the hon. member, but since this situation has not actually precluded the hon. member from participating in a parliamentary proceeding the Chair cannot find that a case of a contempt of parliament has occurred.
By saying this I do not want to diminish the nature or seriousness of the complaint raised by the hon. member for Ottawa—Vanier. I believe he may have a real cause for grievance. If the government is indeed purposefully withholding information from this member, it is putting him in a situation where he is not fully able to defend the interests of the constituents he has been elected to represent.
As I said yesterday, many of my colleagues also faced obstructions from civil servants who have previously been quite open to allowing members access to information that the public has. MPs are referred to the Prime Minister's office or the PCO in such a way that it becomes impossible for them to obtain information that is essential to their work.
This is a very serious situation and one that continues to get worse, not better, but it needs to be addressed through other means available to us.
I do want to point out that in determining whether the question raised by the member for Ottawa—Vanier is a question of privilege, we have to examine the effect the incident or event had on a member's ability to fulfill his or her parliamentary duties. In this case, I think members will agree that although this is, without a doubt, a deplorable incident, the member's ability to fulfill his parliamentary duties likely has not been affected.