Information & Ethics committee  On a point of order, Chair, when you recalled to us the pertinent sections of Marleau and Montpetit on the issue of a point of order, there were three points: relevance, repetition, and procedural. My point of order goes to the issue of relevance. Mr. Poilievre is making statements about electoral expense returns from the 2000 election and imputing the fact that there were court decisions that ruled the agreement between the Bloc and their candidates to be legal to be relevant to the issue at hand.

Information & Ethics committee  In which case this is not a point of order, but simply a request. Monsieur Mayrand made reference to the fact that four days of testimony have been made public, because the transcripts have now been filed with the Federal Court. So I was simply going to request of the clerk, through you, Mr.

Information & Ethics committee  I have a short point of order.

Criminal Code  moved that Bill S-209, An Act to amend the Criminal code (protection of children), be read the first time. It is quite an honour for me to sponsor Bill S-209 in the House. The bill would repeal section 43 of the Criminal Code. Section 43 of the Criminal Code provides the justification available to school teachers, parents and persons standing in the place of parents to use force as a means of correction toward a pupil or a child under their care.

The Environment  Mr. Speaker, that quote proves that the Liberals can learn from their mistakes; the Conservatives have never done that. Not one environmentalist, economist or scientist—and not a single representative of the department—has been able to say that the Conservative government's plan was valid.

The Environment  Mr. Speaker, Arthur Sandborn, from the Quebec chapter of Greenpeace, believes that the Liberal green shift is much better than the NDP's carbon market plan. Sydney Ribaux, general coordinator at Équiterre, said that this is the type of policy they would support. Does the Minister of the Environment agree with his boss who said yesterday that these Quebec environmentalists are crazy?

Points of Order  Mr. Speaker, while I am not a member of the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics, I do know that the chair is not present today. I would hope that before the Speaker makes a ruling on the point that has been raised by the government whip, the Speaker would afford the chair an opportunity to address the point that has been raised here.

Court Challenges Program  Mr. Speaker, after depriving minorities of the court challenges program for more than 16 months, the government is now announcing that the new program will apply only to linguistic minorities. Once again, the government is showing that it does not really care about minority language communities and would rather use them for political purposes.

Court Challenges Program  Mr. Speaker, the government is treating the anglophone linguistic minority, women, gays and lesbians, persons with disabilities, visible minorities and all other minorities like second-class citizens who are not entitled to the same treatment as everyone else. Why is the government refusing to allow all minorities to use the program and defend their rights?

Foreign Affairs  Mr. Speaker, this whole sad story looks like an attempted cover-up involving Foreign Affairs, Public Works, Public Safety, Transport, the Privy Council, the Prime Minister's Office, CSIS and the RCMP. Why such a cover-up? To hide the Prime Minister's lack of judgment. The Prime Minister is at the heart of this scandal, and now it is affecting his entire government.

Foreign Affairs  Mr. Speaker, perhaps he should tell that to the member for Beauce. We now have two dates on which the government was informed of this security breach. The former minister claims that he found out about it on Sunday, May 25, and informed the Prime Minister immediately. The Prime Minister, his cabinet and his Leader of the Government in the House of Commons claim that they found out about it on Monday, May 26.

Public Safety committee  I find it interesting that they would think that was not worthy of somebody saying this needs to be checked out.

Public Safety committee  And my question remains: if an allegation that a spouse of a minister had close links and ties to organized crime came to the attention of Monsieur Tardif as director of security operations, or to you or to any other member of Privy Council, would that lead you or Monsieur Tardif to ask for a verification of those allegations?

Public Safety committee  Given that you've told us that at no time have the RCMP informed you that they have any concerns regarding Mr. Bernier's relationship with Madame Couillard, I have to suppose, then, that either the RCMP is keeping information from you or the RCMP has not conducted an investigation into that situation, or it is at this time conducting such an investigation but has not come to any conclusion.

Public Safety committee  You wouldn't know.