Mr. Speaker, I rise today to address an issue of extreme importance, the motion which addresses contempt of Parliament.
As an elected member of Parliament I take my job and this institution very seriously. An elected representative is just that, a person elected to represent their constituents. The government has forsaken this fundamental democratic principle for political expediency.
It has been established that the hon. member for Charlesbourg, a member of the defence committee, released a communiqué on the letterhead of the office of the Leader of the Opposition on October 26, 1995. It invited Quebec members of the Canadian Armed Forces to join the Quebec military in the event of a yes vote in the referendum.
The original Reform motion called for a recognition that in the opinion of the House this action should be viewed as seditious, offensive and in contempt of Parliament.
The issue is not only whether an action by the hon. member was offensive to the public. However, judging by the number of letters and phone calls I have received it certainly has been deemed to be offensive to the public. The issue is not even whether the action of the hon. member was seditious in the sense of sections 53, 59 or 62 of the Criminal Code. Rather, the issue is whether in the opinion of the House the actions of the member should be viewed as being offensive and seditious in nature.
By allowing the motion to proceed in its original form the House will not simply be determining whether a member should be disciplined for actions offensive to the House and to all Canadians, it will permit the House to consider through an examination by the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs guidelines for all members in terms of what their constituents deem acceptable and unacceptable conduct with respect to urging members of the Canadian Armed Forces to break ranks and to join, in this case, the Quebec army.
These guidelines will clarify for the record what is acceptable and unacceptable conduct. This will protect Bloc members, their constituents and their province as much as it will protect all other Canadians.
Without such guidelines the door is wide open for future mistakes to occur. It is important to all of us to ensure the guidelines are as clearly as possible laid out in law.
This is a difficult issue to deal with. The Liberal policy for making difficult decisions is not to make them. Its mantra of ignore and it will go away has not only shut out Canadians, it nearly cost us our country. Canadians expect their government to listen to their concerns and to take appropriate action. The government has proven time and again that it is not interested in the wishes of its electorate. It has followed its own mandate, many times in direct opposition to its constituents and the majority of Canadians.
On this issue the actions of the hon. member for Charlesbourg, on Mr. Bouchard's letterhead, have been ignored. The hon. member for Charlesbourg sent a communiqué inviting Quebec born soldiers of the Canadian Armed Forces to break ranks and join the Quebec national militia. This act has been viewed as a contempt of Parliament.
The issue of sedition has been raised. The courts have decided according to the Criminal Code of Canada that these actions are not seditious. The definition is quite clear that violence against a state must be involved.
What we are asking of the House is that the seditious nature of this action be reviewed by the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs and that a decision be rendered. We are not seeking to restrict free speech. We are not out on a witch hunt to rid
the House of Bloc members. We are seeking clear parameters regarding the conduct of parliamentarians.
Members opposite were in full favour of the same committee creating rules of conduct and penalties for members of Parliament. Now, because this issue is contentious and of great concern to all Canadians, they refuse to take a stand and allow it to be dealt with. We were elected to this place to make difficult decisions, so let us make them.
My grandfather was born in Nicolet, Quebec near Trois-Rivières in 1867, the same year Canada became a country. He believed in democracy and valued the freedom and opportunity Canada has offered.
In his 105 years on this earth my grandfather would not have tolerated the actions of the member for Charlesbourg, nor do the constituents of Vegreville tolerate it. They have asked me again and again why this issue has not been dealt with in the House of Commons by the Liberal government. How can I answer? The government refuses to deal with the issue. Once again the job of government has been left up to Reform.
The government illustrates all that is wrong with politics today. It has attained the same enviable level of arrogance, greed and non-democratic practices as its predecessors. Canadians shouted loud and clear in the last election that the political practices of the past would no longer be tolerated. Yet this government continues the same old style of politics. It is obvious the government's memory is as short as its actions.
Canadians are regarded around the world for their patience, tolerance and understanding. There is, however, a limit to these virtues. There comes a time when enough is enough and the line must be drawn. That time is now.
The Canadian people cried out in shock when the Bloc Quebecois became Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition. The idea of a political party whose mandate is to break up the country holding seats in the House of Commons was bad enough, but adding official opposition status to the mix had Canadians crying treason.
A responsible government would have listened to these fears and responded by clearly defining the role of the official opposition; a role intended to protect the interests of Canadians from irresponsible government, a role as government in waiting. Not this government. It was happy to have a separatist official opposition rather than one that would hold it accountable to Canadians.
The Bloc took the oath of office and promised to uphold, not abuse, the office of loyal opposition. A few months later the then leader of the official opposition began taking official visits to foreign countries. While on these visits, funded by Canadian taxpayers, he sought foreign recognition for a sovereign Quebec. This was clearly an abuse of the position of leader of the opposition and not in the best interest of Canadians.
A responsible government would have sought an inquiry to investigate this use of Canadian tax dollars and parliamentary influence. Not this government. It has no respect for the hard earned tax dollars of Canadians. It partook in some name calling and refused to take action. The leader of the opposition used the influence of his office to wage a war of words against Canada in order to facilitate his goal of separation. A responsible government would have clearly defined the consequences, terms and conditions of separation and addressed other issues that are important to all Canadians across the country. Not this government. It fed right into the separatist agenda. Its inaction almost proved fatal for the country we cherish so much.
Now the actions of the member for Charlesbourg have left unchallenged and unpunished by the government an event which took place during the referendum campaign. A member of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition, also a member of the Standing Committee on Defence, abused his elected position by encouraging members of the Canadian Armed Forces to break ranks and form a Quebec national militia.
A responsible government would have brought forth a motion referring this issue to the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs so that a definition of sedition, which reflects the wishes of Canadians, could be determined. Instead the government watered down the motion the Reform Party presented.
The government was quoted as saying the communiqué was shocking and outrageous. It was. In fact the chief government whip who spoke earlier on this matter used the word "mutiny" to describe this incident. The chief government whip in this House described it as mutiny. One would think that such words would be followed by punitive measures. They were not.
The same government whip threatened to take the Reform House leader to the bar of the House of Commons over allegedly trying to pressure the Speaker of the House into appointing the Reform Party as official opposition. It is obvious the government whip considers a loyal opposition to be a greater threat than a disloyal opposition. It would seem apparent that the Reform Party, whose mandate is focused on fixing the country, is considered an enemy of this government and worthy of disciplinary measures. This is indeed a sad reality.
This government prefers a separatist party as loyal opposition. Why? Because it fears Reform. We are a threat. Why are we a threat? We are a threat because we believe in empowering Canadians. We believe in being directly accountable to our electorate. These are fundamental principles of democracy and responsible government.
The Prime Minister and other Liberals on occasion have outlined their version of democracy. Again today the member for Mississauga South talked about practising democracy and said that my colleague, the member for Vancouver North, was frustrated by democracy. This of course is the furthest thing from the truth.
What frustrates me and my colleague is that we do not have democracy in this House. We do not have a functioning democracy pure and simple and Canadians know this. We have an elected dictatorship. It is because we do not have a real democracy that important issues like the issue we are dealing with today can be ignored by government.
I will take some time now to examine the different and opposing views of MPs in this House as to what democracy is and really the opposing and different views that Canadians have when compared to Liberal members of Parliament. There are 295 chairs in this House of Commons. To whom do these chairs belong?
Let us take a chair on the government side as an example. To whom does that chair belong? We have had some members of Parliament in the House, including the Prime Minister, who on occasion have said that the chair belongs to the member of Parliament who sits in it. On other occasions the Prime Minister has said that the government chairs in the House all belong to him, the Prime Minister. There are MPs, Reform members included, who believe that these chairs in the House of Commons belong to the constituents who are represented by the member of Parliament who sits in the chair.
I will talk for a minute or two about the idea that the chair in the House of Commons belongs to the member of Parliament. Recently on a major radio talk show out of Toronto a Liberal member of Parliament was being interviewed. This Liberal member of Parliament is considered to be one of the more democratic members. At times he has gone against the hardline position of his government.
A Reform volunteer decided she would phone the talk show and congratulate him for doing that. While she was waiting to get on, a question was asked of the member of Parliament: If your constituents wanted you to vote in favour of capital punishment, would you? The member hemmed and hawed and never really answered the question.
By the time the Reform volunteer got on the line she was angry and her attitude had changed a little toward the member. She asked him, not once, not twice, but four times whether he would vote the wishes of a majority of his constituents if there were a vote in the House of Commons on capital punishment.
The fourth time she put the question this way: If 100 per cent of your constituents showed in a poll or a survey that they were in favour of capital punishment, if a vote were held in the House of Commons on the issue, would you vote the wishes of your constituents? The member of Parliament said no, he would not, he would vote his conscience. Clearly in that case that member of Parliament believes the chair belongs to him.
Since I have been in this House our Prime Minister has said that he was proud he had the guts to vote against his constituents on the issues of abortion and capital punishment. Is it something to be proud of, that he voted against the wishes of a majority of constituents on the issues of abortion and capital punishment? I think not. In that case the Prime Minister believed that the chair he sits in in the House of Commons belongs to him.
The other view, the predominant view in the Liberal Party, is that the chairs in the House of Commons belong to the Prime Minister. To illustrate this let us look at Bill C-68, the gun control bill. On second reading some Liberal MPs did what their constituents wanted; they had done their homework and they voted against the bill. How were they rewarded for doing the job they are supposed to do here in the House? They were rewarded by being punished by the Prime Minister and thrown off committees.
Then the Prime Minister said publicly that any member of Parliament in his party that voted against a government bill again would be punished by his refusing to sign their nomination papers. That means their political career would be over. That was the public threat. Is that democracy? In that case clearly the Prime Minister is saying: "All the chairs on the governing side in this House belong to me, the Prime Minister, and if you do not do what I say, you are out of here". Does that sound like a democracy? It is not democracy. Pure and simple, it is an elected dictatorship.
There are those of us who have a much different view. There are those of us who believe that the chairs in this House of Commons belong to the people of Canada. Each chair belongs to the people who elected the member of Parliament to represent them. To make the change from the chairs in this House belonging to the Prime Minister or to the individual MPs, Reform put forth several pieces of legislation. These pieces of legislation, had they passed, would have given these chairs to the people and would have taken them from the members and from the Prime Minister.
For example, the hon. member for Beaver River presented Bill C-210 that would have put in place recall of members of Parliament. This would have given the people in the constituency the ability to fire their member of Parliament between elections. On the one hand the Prime Minister would say: "If you do not toe the party line, if you do not vote the way I tell you, I am not going to sign your nomination papers and your career is over". On the other hand the people in the constituency would say: "If you do not do what a majority of us want, we are going to kick you out before the next election". Then that chair would belong to the people in the constituency.
The hon. member for Mission-Coquitlam put forward Motion No. 89 calling for freer votes in the House of Commons. Had this motion passed, this country would have had law putting in place freer votes in the House of Commons. The change is very simple and was made in Britain decades ago. If a government bill was defeated it would not automatically mean the defeat of the government. That frees up members of the governing party to vote the wishes of their constituents. Now should the bill fail, it would require a separate non-confidence motion to pass to defeat the government. That gives the power to the people instead of the individual MPs, in particular the Prime Minister, the party leader.
The hon. member for Mission-Coquitlam put forward Motion No. 459. It would have put in place an elected Senate to replace the patronage appointment Senate we have across the way. The member for Kootenay East put forward Bill C-365 which would have put in place an elected Senate.
Numerous motions that Reformers put forth would have allowed the use of referendums on important issues like capital punishment, abortion and physician assisted suicide. They would have been held in conjunction with federal elections so they would not be expensive. That would have given these seats in the House of Commons directly to the constituents.
In every case this government voted against these bills. It shot down the changes that would have moved control of these seats from the individual MPs and especially from the Prime Minister. It would have given control to the people in the constituencies.
It is so sad that these changes, although promised by the Liberals, have not materialized. In fact they voted against them. The mess we are in now, the issue we are debating today would never have happened had these democratic changes been made. I encourage the government to make these changes although I know it will not.