Mr. Speaker, I have just a few points on this debate.
I agree with others who have said that it is an unfortunate detour from the regularly scheduled business of the House that we are even engaged in this debate. We are because the House leader of the fifth party decided he wanted to bring it. That is unfortunate in and of itself. Besides that, it is interesting to me and the rotation here has allowed me a minute or two to calm down, which is probably just as well.
I have difficulty engaging in debate someone who I cannot exceed in decibels, which would have been the case had I followed the House leader of the Bloc Quebecois who seems intent that he believes in that old adage that when your argument is a little weak, yell louder and perhaps someone will believe you. That is unfortunate.
We should engage in the debate and the merits of this motion before the House. I would argue with people who would say we must be unanimous, with those in the House who say it is not appropriate that we would even dispute the motion before the House, to debate it, the pros and cons. Would it be because we are a flock of sheep?
I say not, Mr. Speaker. I say that you have brought this to the House for the House to make the decision and that is why you have brought it to this place, so that all of us could bring our collective wisdom on this decision to see whether it will be referred to the procedure and House affairs committee or whether it will not.
If, Mr. Speaker, the standing orders gave you the power to just by fiat declare it to be so, that is what the standing orders would say, but they do not say that.
You have come to the House and have asked for a decision and for people wherever in this House to say that now we should not debate it, now we should give it unanimous consent or we somehow are flying in the face of our Speaker, that is nonsense.
We support the Speaker in his decisions but we also support the decision of the House of Commons as a collectivity. It is our right to speak on this motion and others and vote as we see fit, not to be coerced by people who somehow think it is wrong to speak our minds, and to vote the will of our constituents or our own minds in this case.
Specifically I want to say a couple of things on this matter. The silly season has struck early with this motion by the House leader of the Progressive Conservatives.
I think back to the last parliament when we dealt with a case of contempt of Parliament or privilege. I think it was contempt. It was the case of Mr. Jacob which was brought forward as a contempt of Parliament because he had urged members of the armed forces to consider joining the Quebec army the moment after the referendum.
That was a very serious issue that pro or con needed to be examined. For goodness' sake, the defence critic of the official opposition at that time urged people to leave the Canadian Armed Forces the moment after a referendum and join the Quebec army, which does not even exist. It was quite a statement and it was referred to committee.
What happened in committee? That is why I am worried about this motion. It went to committee and what happened was that the majority in that committee took control of the agenda, took control of the committee, and did not listen to the debate. What they did was ramrod through a decision, in that case saying that Mr. Jacob was not in contempt according to the majority, supported by the official opposition at that time. In fact many speakers thought they should actually condemn the Reform Party for even bringing up the issue.
Imagine being concerned when someone says that someone should desert the Canadian army and join the non-existent Quebec army and we are the ones who are chastised. It is ridiculous. It is just silly, sick and perverse that people who bring up things as a bona fide contentious point of privilege and contempt of parliament instead are chastised in the public House of Commons for even bringing up the case. It is ridiculous in the extreme.
That is what will happen to this motion too if it gets sent to committee. The silly season sets in. That is what happens when they do this sort of thing. The House leader of the fifth party should know that. It goes off to committee and there it sits and waits for days and weeks and months while it festers away instead of being dealt with it as it should have been dealt with quickly and put aside.
I will not vote in favour of the motion as it stands because this thing should have never gone the route it has gone today. It is unfortunate Progressive Conservatives have chosen to tie up the House in this way. It is unfortunate that we will have to deal with it. We will have to push it through to a vote. Then perhaps it will be sent to committee where it will languish away, festering and burbling away in the back rooms of this place instead of being dealt with quickly and succinctly as it should have been all along. Therefore I move:
That the motion be amended by deleting all the words after the words “Ottawa Sun ”.
In that way we can say that if people believe this is harsh on the Speaker or harsh on the House, let them say so. This should not be referred to the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs. This should be treated as any newspaper article should be.
I can envision the PC Party bringing its Frank magazines in here next week and saying “Oh, my goodness, look, another article that somehow brings things into disrepute. We had best haul everybody out in front of everybody again and shut down the procedure of the House”.
It is ridiculous. It should not be happening. We should be on to the business of the budget. That is why this motion in effect should say that hon. members can say what they want about the newspaper article, but we are not going to waste our time here and we are not going to waste our time in committee on a motion that should have never been brought to the House to begin with.