Citizenship and Immigration Committee on June 13th, 2013

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

I will call the meeting back to order.

This matter of privilege is.... We had a matter of privilege earlier, Mr. Nicholls. The point of privilege is debatable; however, any ruling that I make is not debatable. Is there any debate on this point of privilege that has been raised?

Mr. Menegakis, and then Ms. Sims.

[Costas Menegakis, Conservative, Richmond Hill, ON]

Yes, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Nicholls is referring to a member of the media, who is by all accounts probably observing what's happening here. This is his assessment. I don't consider it a violation of my privileges. Any member of the media has the right to comment on how they see or observe things.

I fail to see how this is a violation of a member's privilege. The media report every single day. Sometimes we like what they write, and sometimes we don't like what they write, but there is certainly freedom of speech in this country and they have the right to express themselves in any way they see fit. We can't sanction in this committee what a member of the media can or cannot write. I can't believe that Mr. Nicholls would bring this up to this committee as a point of personal privilege.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Ms. Sims.

[Jinny Sims, NDP, Newton—North Delta, BC]

Thank you.

I absolutely am proud of the things we enjoy in this country. We enjoy the freedom of speech and the right to express ourselves. We do have our fifth estate, which is also guaranteed some rights. As my colleague across the way said, different perspectives are given on our proceedings here, whether it's today, yesterday, or any other day. If I were to describe the proceedings here compared to the description given by one of my colleagues across the way, I think that even we would have two different perspectives.

To me, when it comes to privilege, that privilege has to be when my rights as an individual member of Parliament, or the rights of another member of Parliament, have been violated. I spoke at great length to that yesterday, so I'm not going to do that today. I just wanted to make that comment here.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Mr. Harris.

[Jack Harris, NDP, St. John's East, NL]

Thank you, Chair.

I appreciate your ruling that a matter of privilege is debatable, or at least you'll hear from other people on the point. To have a proper discussion on it, though, we've had a couple of quotes from the article. Is it possible to have a copy of the article distributed to the committee?

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

It is, but the problem is it's only in one language. Anything we distribute to the committee has to be bilingual.

[Jinny Sims, NDP, Newton—North Delta, BC]

Can we seek unanimous consent?

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Yes, I guess you can.

Is there unanimous consent to distribute the article even though it's only in English?

[Some hon. members]

No.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

There's no consent.

[A voice]

It's possible for me to get a copy.

[Jack Harris, NDP, St. John's East, NL]

Then perhaps the—

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

You can ask your friend right next to you.

[Jinny Sims, NDP, Newton—North Delta, BC]

It's in his BlackBerry.

[Jack Harris, NDP, St. John's East, NL]

Perhaps the answer, then—

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Excuse me, Mr. Harris, I'm sorry.

[Jack Harris, NDP, St. John's East, NL]

I'm sorry, yes. You asked for unanimous consent. I guess it wasn't given. But in order to have the matter before the committee properly, then perhaps it would require a suspension of the committee so we can have a translated copy made available.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

No, I'm not going to suspend.

Mr. Harris, and I'm prepared to reconsider what I'm about to say, I agree with Mr. Menegakis, and I think Ms. Sims. It's freedom of speech. People can write and say whatever they wish as long as it's not slanderous. I haven't heard anything that's slanderous. That's his opinion.

But I don't intend to hold up this meeting simply because of an article in some paper.

[Jack Harris, NDP, St. John's East, NL]

I think the issue is whether or not the committee can properly consider the question of privilege. What I'm suggesting is the committee can't even consider it. You can't hear anyone's comments on it, and I'm not prepared to make a comment on it until the article has been tabled before the committee. That's the concern I have. It's not a question of whether or not we should hold up the committee because somebody wrote an article. The question is whether or not this committee is in a position to deal with the question of privilege. I don't think we are, unless we have a copy of the article tabled for discussion.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

It has been read to me and I understand what the author of the article said because of what Mr. Nicholls has read to the committee. I understand what he said.

[Jack Harris, NDP, St. John's East, NL]

I think he's—

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

I don't need the article to understand what he has said, and I believe everyone else in this committee should understand what has been said because of what Mr. Nicholls has read. If you want to have Mr. Nicholls read the article again, that's fine, but I'm not going to hold up the proceedings on this motion until a newspaper article is translated into French. I have no intention of doing that.

[Jack Harris, NDP, St. John's East, NL]

I think he made a couple of quotes from the article, I don't think he read the whole article, sir.

[Costas Menegakis, Conservative, Richmond Hill, ON]

[Inaudible—Editor]