I address my few remarks to Shaughnessy's family and friends, and to my colleagues in the House of Commons.
As the Prime Minister said, we are a family. Just as Shaughnessy was part of your family, she was part of ours in this House and part of the larger Canadian family.
There was an umpire in Welland where I grew up and played baseball. His name was Frank Chase. He was hard of hearing. He had a hearing aid. Every time something went wrong in a game and everyone started yelling at old Frank, he would turn off his hearing aid. I think of him sometimes when I am in this House. I do not want to wear a hearing aid, but if I had one I would have turned it off quite a few times when I heard what Shaughnessy was saying down at the other end.
Shaughnessy loved the House. She loved being here. She loved the give and take of Parliament. She loved the institution. She was a partisan, with no apologies.
Of course, she always held me in awe and she always feared me. That is why on Wednesday of last week she waved to me from just behind the chair over there. When I came out she grabbed me by the arm. As I said, she always feared me. She said “Listen here, Gib, you have to do something to make sure that the House doesn't get out of control”. I said “Shaughnessy, you could help me a great deal”.
And as a family when she fell here in the House, I yelled out to get a doctor. Bob Kilger got to his feet and asked did we have a doctor. Grant Hill was over there within seconds and pretty soon Peter Adams and André Bachand were there. We could not get at her. She was on the floor. We moved chairs. Our head page, Daniel Cardinal, came and he looked at me. I said yes, take them out, and he ripped out six desks so we could get at her, so we could get help. I thank you for doing for us, for Shaughnessy, what we could not do.
We are a family, a very, very special family. We are going to have to mourn too, like you.
I want to invite you, my colleagues, and the family of course, to room 216 afterward. There is a book of remembrance that I invite you to sign. But more than anything, I just want us to be together for a little while.
We are going to miss Shaughnessy. She belonged to us.