Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order in regard to what went on today in question period, the admissibility of the question that I tried to ask in the questions that were put forward by the Leader of the Opposition.
These questions were intended to address ministerial responsibility of the government because they were designed to clear any doubt as to the position of the government in regard to its relationship to Cuba. The doubt, whether the member opposite or anyone else likes it or not, was necessary because of comments and headlines in national newspapers this morning that we all woke up to, and saw in the Quorum.
I refer you to Beauchesne's 6th Edition, Citation 162 which states:
The Speaker of the House of Commons is the representative of the House itself—
Citation 164 states that the Speaker communicates the resolutions of the House. Citation 166 explains the rank of the Speaker which states:
The Speaker's rank is defined by Order in Council of December 19, 1968, in which it is provided that upon all occasions and in all meetings, except where otherwise provided by Act of Parliament, the Speaker shall have precedence immediately after the Governor General, the Prime Minister of Canada, Chief Justice of Canada, former Governors General, former Prime Ministers and the Speaker of the Senate, and immediately before Ambassadors and Members of the Cabinet.
Mr. Speaker, you truly do hold a high and exalted role in Parliament and in the Canadian parliamentary system. When you speak and when you are quoted, with your rank also comes the responsibility of being quoted properly and of being answerable for those comments since you do in fact speak on behalf of all of us when you speak publicly in your role as the Speaker.
I believe the opposition was doing the responsible thing in asking the government to clear any misconceptions about the government's position toward Cuba, in our relationship with Cuba and so on.
Mr. Speaker that is what the question was, certainly that asked by the Leader of the Opposition, where he asked the government to clear up what is our position. The first question was answered by the Deputy Prime Minister. He tried to clarify it. The Leader of the Official Opposition rose again to get more details about what was being done about the communication of that position and at that point, you refused to listen to him. You refused to listen to him for the remainder of the question period.
The questions of the Leader of the Opposition were an attempt to clear up any misconceptions that the headlines and the quotes brought upon the position of this Parliament and, I think, the position of the government. Certainly that was the intent of those questions. Mr. Speaker did not listen to those questions and did not allow the normal rotation that has been negotiated between House leaders about the rotation between the parties during the question period. I think this was shortsighted because we never did get to the bottom of what the government position was.
Those quotes from Beauchesne's I think properly puts you in the elevated spot that parliamentarians and Canadians hold you in but that does not mean that we cannot ask questions that have been raised both publicly in the press and in a public forum in your role as the Speaker in order to clarify them and allow the government to put their position on the table.