Madame Jennings says we will not be able to cover everybody, that the Speaker, who is at the end of the House, cannot hear what happens, so how can he cover it? Well, I think the incident she was talking about, though she didn't name it, was very close to the chair.
At the same time, though, if we had a rule that in cases where the Speaker heard...I think the person making the comments would not think, “Am I going to get caught by the Speaker or not?” He would know there would be consequences, and just because of the shame of it, it would be like not giving him any tools.
You’re right, there will be no way of covering them all. But the fact remains that before making a comment, the person must know that there is a possibility the Speaker will hear him, and there will be consequences. I believe the rules must be applied. After all, we are talking about the Speaker of the House of Commons here. If we take away his power to govern the House and demand respect, it won’t work. You were there in 1992 and things weren’t going well at that time. We now get the impression that the situation is even worse.
It’s not just issues of sexism and racism, but everything that happens in the House. Michel did a study that was released two or three weeks ago. It showed that since September, the party in power has stood up 63 times, the Liberal party 33 times, I believe, the Bloc Québécois 3 times and the NPD 4 times. There is a problem: we no longer have a Question Period.
It was also mentioned in the report that salaries could be cut. At the time, if my memory serves, there was the member’s salary as such and payment for House-related duties. A member who did not appear in the House was not paid. Now there is a fixed salary. In the past few years, salaries have changed.