Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I think all of us as members of Parliament consider it a real honour to be elected to represent our constituents in this place. We know it's an honour, but we come not as lone rangers but as members of this institution, now called the Parliament of Canada, and specifically, as members of the House of Commons. We participate on committees and with that honour comes certain privileges, and with those privileges, I think, some obligations. It appears to me that those privileges have been breached, so I just want to raise this item for the consideration of the committee.
In particular, I refer to a summary of a radio broadcast on October 14 in which there were some discussions about fisheries and oceans issues. It was on the Voice of the Common Man, from St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador. The summary article has a section in it that concerned me. It refers to an exchange with Mr. Cleary, and the summary says:
Cleary says DFO issued a release this week touting the dollar value of this year's snow crab catch, but he says they make no mention of the stocks, which are in trouble.
And this is the sentence that concerns me. It reads:
He says a report on snow crab stocks, showing that they're in trouble and calling for a review of DFO management, is expected to be released in the next couple of weeks.
I could be mistaken and I'd be happy to be corrected on this, but if that comment is referring to our committee's snow crab report, which at that time had not been tabled--it was only tabled yesterday--it would appear to be a breach of privilege. We all need to be careful. In fact, we were reminded a couple of times in the preparation of the report that this would be the case. I'm not sure Mr. Cleary was here for all of those reminders, but, nevertheless, I think it's incumbent upon us to be aware of our obligations.
So if this does refer to the report that had not been tabled and makes a comment about the content of it--a comment which, by the way, I think is inaccurate, but that notwithstanding--it does appear to be breaching the privilege of the members of this committee.