Thank you very much, and I want to thank the member for raising a point of privilege. And as she so rightfully said, a point of privilege, as you know, can only be addressed in the House by the Speaker.
But I do want to remind members, all members.....
I'm hoping, Mr. Dykstra, you're listening as well, because this will apply to you in equal standing. I would once again give a reminder that a certain level of decorum is required here—not a certain level, but I would say there is a bar that we shouldn't be sinking below.
I want to remind members that there is no way any member should feel harassed, intimidated, or bullied at committee, or anywhere else in the world, really. I've been teaching anti-bullying all my life. It is very difficult for the chair to look at things retrospectively, because when those behaviours occur it's really important that they are recognized and spoken about at the time, or as close to the time as possible. As time passes, it is very difficult for us to go back, for this chair anyway, to try to deal with those things.
The chair is once again going to say there is a big difference between privilege and feelings being hurt and being bullied. I think there are different places where these things can be addressed, but as far as this committee is concerned—I am actually going to make this very firm now, so I'm hoping all of you are listening—I am not going to tolerate anybody making, I would say, unparliamentary comments or heckling unnecessarily when the other person is speaking.
Look, I'm not going to say all of you have to sit here like this either. We're all human beings. Sometimes we say things, but I think we do have to be respectful and careful of the words we choose. This doesn't just apply to one side of the room; it applies to everybody at this committee.
I would urge the member, in regard to these concerns you have expressed, that if it happens again you bring it to the chair's attention there and then, and then put processes in place.
I also want to remind people that it's very easy when you're feeling under pressure to start bringing up things from the past. There is a certain time limitation as to how you can address things that happened outside of this meeting, at least for this chair. But the chair will very conscientiously and very deliberately take a look to ensure that is not happening here.
Whether it's a man who is being bullied or whether it's a woman being bullied, neither is acceptable. I have both a son and a daughter, and I wouldn't want either one of them to be the victim of bullies. I think we always think that bullying only occurs one way. I would say that at times, as a chair, I have noticed that in our excitement sometimes some members have words come out of their mouths. I must admit that I may have been guilty of this at different times, so I'm trying to be very conscious of my behaviour as well. Let's all of us reflect on that, and make sure that we don't create a situation where a member feels bullied, intimidated, or picked on.
As far as privilege goes, privilege cannot be decided here. That has to be decided by the Speaker. In this case, from what I have observed in the meeting today, I can't make a ruling, but I would not say I saw privilege being...what is it? The right word would be “transgressed”.