Exactly. Of course, I haven't been here as long as some members, but Mr. Christopherson spoke briefly in the House when the original question of privilege was made, and he commented that this has happened time and time again. It's an unfortunate situation because as parliamentarians, we have—as it says on the back of our badges—the right of access to these precincts by virtue of our membership in this House.
I raised that just as a starting point because I think it is important to acknowledge what is going on in the chamber—some of the games—and I use that term with some deal of advisement because I think it is unfortunate that some games are being played. I think it's unfortunate, because we need to get to the point and to the heart of the matter.
I will leave the discussion on privilege there, but I think it's something that we as parliamentarians and this committee will be coming forward with at some point, because I suspect that the appropriate mechanism will be for the question of privilege to come to this committee, which is the standard practice of the House.
I wanted to start this evening by talking about the role and the importance of the opposition. Parliament, I think, functions best when there is a strong opposition and when there are strong interaction and accountability mechanisms that are held by the opposition party. I recently had cause to review some of the work by Senator Eugene Forsey, who I believe was a member of the Liberal caucus when he served in the other place. He has a discussion here, which I'll be referencing a little later, on the question of confidence.
The question of confidence is an interesting one. It goes beyond simply the written texts of the Standing Orders and the written texts of the authorities, and really helps to inform a lot of the discussions and the machinations that Parliament and governments go through from time to time. I want to discuss a bit this idea of how that operates and how it affects the operation of this House.
Before I do that—this is relevant, Mr. Chair, and if you'll indulge me I will explain this—this is the Anglican Book of Common Prayer. I do not have a publication date for it. All I have is an inscription on the front page—