Could I just throw something in?
Suppose, for example, Mr. Chairman, you were sitting in the House working away, and Mr. Reid came over to your office and said, “I've got a point of order I want to make in the House. Is the Speaker in the chair, or is it somebody else?” Your staff say, “We'll find out”, and send you an e-mail or a text message saying, “Is the Speaker in the chair or not?” You write back, “No, it's the Deputy Speaker.”
It was sent from the House. It says I'm not there. Imagine. Is this something that shouldn't happen?
That is part of the thing. You can send these messages and get information. You can text a member sitting in the House and ask if so-and-so is there because you want to talk to so-and-so. The person says he's not there, and you're suddenly in trouble. If he's there, you're fine, but if he isn't there, technically you've breached our rules, because you can't refer to the absence of a member.
You're asking the Speaker to decide when this is an offence and when it is not, without there being a rule in place that governs it. The rule is that in debate you can't. My point in my ruling was that a text message isn't a debate. Yes, it isn't good to be sending that kind of information out, but if we want to stop it, it is going to be tough to stop unless we eliminate the machine issue, I think. Do you know what I'm saying?