Public Accounts Committee on Dec. 5th, 2011

[Joyce Bateman, Conservative, Winnipeg South Centre, MB]

Well, on a point of order, sir, if you ruled in that way at the start, which you did--

[Gerry Byrne, Liberal, Humber—St. Barbe—Baie Verte, NL]

Mr. Chair, with all due respect, I have the floor here.

[The Chair, NDP, David Christopherson]

All right. Just be calm. Nobody's rights are being denied here. There doesn't seem to be a huge abundance of questions, you know. We have time to do this.

We have no choice. The member wants to give his comments, and there are members of the government who say that he shouldn't be allowed to speak down that road. I have to deal with that. I will get back to the main item as soon as I can--

[Joyce Bateman, Conservative, Winnipeg South Centre, MB]

But my point--

[The Chair, NDP, David Christopherson]

--but the next order of business is Mr. Byrne speaking.

[Gerry Byrne, Liberal, Humber—St. Barbe—Baie Verte, NL]

Thank you.

[The Chair, NDP, David Christopherson]

He still has the floor.

[Gerry Byrne, Liberal, Humber—St. Barbe—Baie Verte, NL]

Replying to the point of order, Mr. Chair, I think there's not a person in this room who is not seized by the obvious irony that calling electors in a particular electoral district and saying there's going to be a byelection, an imminent byelection, and that the current member has resigned and framing that all as free speech--

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Chair, NDP, David Christopherson]

Order, order.

[Gerry Byrne, Liberal, Humber—St. Barbe—Baie Verte, NL]

--but then at the same time, here we sit in a committee of Parliament, and I have tabled in the proper order a motion before the committee--

[An hon. member]

Mr. Chair, a point of order.

[The Chair, NDP, David Christopherson]

Oh, come on, folks.

[Andrew Saxton, Conservative, North Vancouver, BC]

Point of order, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, NDP, David Christopherson]

Look, I see the government members going....

I gave you three or four points of order. Allow Mr. Byrne at least another minute to state his case and then I'll make my decision.

[Andrew Saxton, Conservative, North Vancouver, BC]

He's clearly going off topic, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, NDP, David Christopherson]

He's not doing anything that's out of order, colleagues.

[Andrew Saxton, Conservative, North Vancouver, BC]

He's clearly going off topic, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, NDP, David Christopherson]

As of right now, the only voice I want to hear is Mr. Byrne's.

Go.

[Gerry Byrne, Liberal, Humber—St. Barbe—Baie Verte, NL]

Mr. Chairman, I have tabled, with all proper order, with all proper precedent, and within the context of the Standing Orders, a notice of motion.

The government is now suggesting that because they in the future intend to call any discussion about my motion into an in camera session, they want to ban my speech about my motion before they even move it in camera. That is a ridiculous restriction on the freedom of a member to be able to present the case about a topic, which is still before, which....

By the way, Mr. Chairman--

[Andrew Saxton, Conservative, North Vancouver, BC]

Point of order.

[Gerry Byrne, Liberal, Humber—St. Barbe—Baie Verte, NL]

--the tabling of a motion is a very public process.

[The Chair, NDP, David Christopherson]

Okay. Point of order?

[Gerry Byrne, Liberal, Humber—St. Barbe—Baie Verte, NL]

The existence of my notice--

[Andrew Saxton, Conservative, North Vancouver, BC]

Point of order.