Bill C-18 Committee on Nov. 1st, 2011

[Pat Martin, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

And I'm not finished my point of order.

[The Chair, Conservative, Blaine Calkins]

That's fine, but I am going to ask you to refer your questions through me, and I'm going to ask you to use language that resembles more along the lines of that of a parliamentarian. We are all parliamentarians around this table, and your behaviour is representative of what we're doing here.

I'm going to recognize you to have the floor again to continue with your point of order, but I expect some better conduct, sir.

[Pat Martin, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

Our rights and our privileges as members of Parliament are being infringed upon by these jackboot tactics of your committee--and you too, Mr. Chairman; I blame you. You've been parachuted into chair of this committee to sabotage the work of our committee when on behalf of the people of Canada we're supposed to be doing our work to study this bill with some kind of depth and analysis.

The very first question I ask, an innocuous, harmless question--have you done a cost-benefit analysis, and will farmers be better off or worse off with the Wheat Board, in your opinion--and these guys come in here with their manual, with their bloody documents on page 1068 of some book, that I'm not allowed to ask a simple question. It's absurd, Mr. Chairman, and I'll tell you why.

The people I represent want us to do our job as members of Parliament and drill down deep. I've been in committees where for 52 days we've studied a piece of legislation. Here we have two four-hour sessions, and we won't hear from a single producer because you've set up this committee in such a way that the producers aren't allowed to testify, believe it or not. That's what the public should know first. You imposed a gag order on the Wheat Board themselves, so in this whole process--

[The Chair, Conservative, Blaine Calkins]

Mr. Martin--

[Pat Martin, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

--you could carpet-bomb the prairie region with your own propaganda.

[The Chair, Conservative, Blaine Calkins]

Mr. Martin, I don't hear a point of order.

[Pat Martin, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

You put a gag order on the Wheat Board to keep them from defending themselves.

[The Chair, Conservative, Blaine Calkins]

I simply hear a debate arising out of the discussions we had at an in camera meeting yesterday.

[Pat Martin, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

This is a—

[The Chair, Conservative, Blaine Calkins]

So what I'm going to do is—

[Pat Martin, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

I'm speaking to the point of order.

[The Chair, Conservative, Blaine Calkins]

—I'm going to--

[Pat Martin, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

I'm speaking to the point of order, which is my right.

[The Chair, Conservative, Blaine Calkins]

I'm going to make a ruling.

[Pat Martin, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

It's my right to speak to this point of order to defend my right—

[The Chair, Conservative, Blaine Calkins]

If you have a—

[Pat Martin, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

—to do my job as a member of Parliament.

[The Chair, Conservative, Blaine Calkins]

Mr. Martin, if you have a point of order, I haven't heard it yet.

[Pat Martin, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

I'm speaking to his point of order, which is trying to undermine my—

[The Chair, Conservative, Blaine Calkins]

I'm going to rule on the point of order.

[Pat Martin, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

—right to ask a question.

[The Chair, Conservative, Blaine Calkins]

I'm going to rule on the point of order from Mr. Storseth.

Mr. Storseth, I'm going to allow the witnesses to answer this question, those who feel comfortable in doing so.

Mr. Knubley, if you feel that the paragraph on page 1068 applies, as directed by Mr. Storseth--and those are the rules by which we govern ourselves in this committee--you can recuse yourself from answering that question. However, any other witness who feels that he wants to answer that question or would like to address the question of the cost-benefit analysis proposed by Mr. Martin is free to do so.

Please resume. It's Mr. Martin's time.

[Pat Martin, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

Mr. Chairman, now that I have the right to ask the question, we should remind the witnesses that they do not have the right to not answer the question.

You do not have the right to remain silent at a parliamentary committee. You offset that right with the fact that we can't use any testimony you give here against you. You enjoy parliamentary privilege.

It's not an option to answer the question if they feel like it. If I put the question, they answer it.

[The Chair, Conservative, Blaine Calkins]

Mr. Anderson, do you have a point of order?

[David Anderson, Conservative, Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK]

To respond to Mr. Martin's diatribe, the anarchist's handbook he refers to is called House of Commons Procedure and Practice. A little further down the line from what Mr. Storseth said, it states: “Consequently public servants have been excused from commenting on the policy decisions made by the government”. So it does give them the right to excuse themselves from answering those questions.

I should also point out that the members are here today as members of the working group, and the questions should be geared towards the work of the working group.