Evidence of meeting #21 for Procedure and House Affairs in the 40th Parliament, 3rd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was convention.
A recording is available from Parliament.
11:50 a.m.
Conservative
11:50 a.m.
Assistant Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Western Ontario, As an Individual
Someone's now going to have to come after me to clarify my remarks.
11:50 a.m.
Voices
Oh, oh!
11:50 a.m.
Conservative
11:50 a.m.
Conservative
Scott Reid Conservative Lanark—Frontenac—Lennox and Addington, ON
Yes, you prompted something.
We've had what has been an interesting discussion with the past few witnesses. I'm not sure that it's been entirely fruitful on the discussion regarding the Speaker of the House and, sort of parenthetically, the Speaker of the Senate.
My impression from the remarks or the formula that the Speaker of the House reads at every throne speech.... As one of the members of the House of Commons jostling around the bar of the Senate, I get to hear it each time, and it seems to me what that's really about is a reaffirmation of the settlement of 1688—or if you wish, of 1660 and the restoration—and the establishment of the fact that the House of Commons is part of a Parliament. It has certain privileges that the crown can't take away, and the crown can't arrange to have access of the House of the Commons. The ministers around the crown can't freeze out the access of the House of Commons as a whole to the Governor General.
By the same token, it's also the reaffirmation of our freedom of speech. We can speak in the House without facing any consequences. We have parliamentary privilege in that regard. I think that's what's going on.
The Speaker of the Senate, if I'm not mistaken, is appointed by the Prime Minister. It's actually in our Constitution. It's actually written down that it's not an independent post. I suspect, therefore, that it would have lesser rights in this regard. It's really, in a sense, a government post. That's just an observation. He's not elected by the Senate.
11:55 a.m.
Assistant Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Western Ontario, As an Individual
You're way ahead of me there. That's all very interesting. It would make sense. Again, as I said before, I have not looked deeply into the conventions surrounding the Speaker of the House of Commons. That applies doubly so for the Speaker of the Senate.
11:55 a.m.
Conservative
11:55 a.m.
Assistant Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Western Ontario, As an Individual
Yes.
11:55 a.m.
Conservative
11:55 a.m.
Assistant Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Western Ontario, As an Individual
No. I'll just say that I've greatly enjoyed reading the testimony of the other witnesses. I actually found that the quality of the questions throughout have shown a very well-briefed and well-functioning committee. I'm very grateful to have had the opportunity to be here.
11:55 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Joe Preston
Thank you very much.
We do thank you for coming and sharing that with us today.
I'm going to suspend just for a minute so we can excuse the witness. We have a bit of committee business, so I think we'll go in camera. We have a report to discuss. With the will of the committee, we'll suspend for two minutes.
[Proceedings continue in camera]