Mr. Speaker, first let me say that, at least as far as I am concerned, and I am convinced I am expressing the opinion of all the members of this House, we have, of course, full confidence in your work.
I would like to quote—and this may seem strange to you—what I said myself on February 26, 1998. At the time, I proposed the following to the House, and I quote:
In a spirit of calm, the House leaders of the parties will carry on their tradition, as the member for Roberval said himself, of finding some common ground on a number of thorny issues. Our behaviour this afternoon in this matter indicates just how thorny it is and perhaps for obvious reasons, without going into all the details.
For someone like myself who believes strongly in the unity of his country, flag waving is not provocation, but an act of pride. Someone of a different persuasion may see it differently, and I accept that. I find it regrettable, but I accept it.
A little further, you said yourself, and I quote:
We have had a suggestion from the hon. government House leader that the House leaders of the different parties come together to discuss how these things should be handled—
Mr. Speaker, you yourself offered to speak on behalf of the hon. member for York South—Weston since, as an independent member, he does not have a House leader.
What I want to say is that, at the time, we agreed to discuss the issue amongst ourselves and then make a recommendation to the Speaker, on behalf of the House leaders. The Speaker himself would have consulted the independent member.
That being said, I found the article rather unusual because in fact the article suggested that Mr. Speaker is going to rule on this today.
Of course this would be surprising to me because in fact the House leaders have not met. Therefore, we have not had the opportunity of making our recommendations to Mr. Speaker and presumably Mr. Speaker would not be ruling until having heard that recommendation, given what Your Honour said the last day we sat.
That being said, there will be a meeting of House leaders as early as tomorrow. While I cannot predict a conclusion of any discussions we will or might have tomorrow, I can surely say to Mr. Speaker that we will not be making a recommendation until at least late in the day tomorrow and possibly later.
Therefore, someone speculating on what the ruling of the Speaker might be today is very hypothetical, particularly given that the Speaker will not be making, I believe, a ruling on this issue today for the reasons I have just outlined.
Maybe we should all take another deep breath—as we did on Thursday, February 26—for a couple of days and let the events unfold as they should. In other words, the House leaders would meet, make a recommendation to Your Honour, then we can discuss it and a ruling can come down.
In the meantime perhaps we can all contribute by ensuring that our discussions are held through our various House leaders rather than by using other means.