Evidence of meeting #16 for Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics in the 39th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was money.
A recording is available from Parliament.
February 14th, 2008 / 10:15 a.m.
Liberal
Conservative
David Tilson Conservative Dufferin—Caledon, ON
Well, Mr. Murphy must have been imagining things, because I never asked questions. I made a point of not doing that. I believe the chair can ask questions, but the convention of this Parliament is that you normally wait until other members of the committee have taken their turn.
Normally, if you as a Liberal ask questions, the Liberal caucus forgoes the right to ask questions in that round, because in effect you are giving the Liberal Party two rounds of questions and that's not fair.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Paul Szabo
Mr. Tilson, one of the things you will also note is that I do not have prepared questions. My questions have been for clarification or to try to set the tone for the witness.
Conservative
David Tilson Conservative Dufferin—Caledon, ON
What are you reading from? Those are questions. I can see them.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Paul Szabo
No, I'm sorry, there are no questions here. This is my introduction of Mr. Pelossi and these are the notes....
Excuse me, I have the floor. I have the floor, sir.
I'm just trying to answer questions. But now we agree that the chair has the authority under the rules of Parliament to ask questions. We agree on that. Is that correct, sir?
Conservative
David Tilson Conservative Dufferin—Caledon, ON
No, it's not correct. Do you want me to debate that with you?
Conservative
David Tilson Conservative Dufferin—Caledon, ON
Yes, let's go on, Mr. Chairman. You're out of order; let's proceed.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Paul Szabo
Okay, do you know what? I'm sorry, colleagues. For some time now I have taken a fair bit of challenging by Mr. Tilson on my authority of Parliament, and a fair bit of abuse, and some challenging of what I can do or not do. I believe the members of this committee are aware of the matters and of what has happened, and I take this latest outburst, and final outburst, even when I explained the rules, to be a direct challenge of the chair, and I am considering it deemed to be a motion challenging the chair's authority. I'm prepared to relinquish my position if the committee so views that it's necessary for that to happen.
I am going to put the question now on the motion challenging the chair's authority, collectively by Mr. Tilson. There is no debate on a challenge to the chair, so I am going to ask right now for the vote of the committee on whether the committee sustains the decision of the chair.
(Ruling of the chair sustained)
Conservative
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Paul Szabo
Excuse me, colleagues. You understand that a point of order is the right and a privilege of a member, and I'm going to defend that right of all members. Mr. Tilson has asked for a point of order, and I'll ask him to state the nature of his point of order before he gets into the details so that I can rule on whether or not it's in order.
Conservative
David Tilson Conservative Dufferin—Caledon, ON
Very simply, Mr. Chairman, the vote was not unanimous, and you said it was unanimous.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Paul Szabo
Sir, that's not a point of order. You're in debate. I can tell you that all the people who voted on that motion voted to sustain. People who don't vote are not included in the total of the vote. The vote was unanimous.
Let's move on now to Mr. Thibault, please.
Liberal
Robert Thibault Liberal West Nova, NS
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I would like to welcome you once again, Mr. Pelossi. You know Mr. Edmund Frick as a trustee of IAL, do you not?
Liberal
Robert Thibault Liberal West Nova, NS
He was the only trustee. Did you ever meet or know Elmer MacKay before the end of your association with IAL in 1991?
As an Individual
That is possible, but I do not remember exactly, because I met a lot of people in Canada. It is hard to say. I do not remember exactly that I met him in Canada.