Mr. Speaker, first let me say how I think these conditions are unfortunate and even unacceptable.
I became aware of the picket around 6.45 a.m. At that time I alerted the House authorities of what I believed was a condition that could cause difficulties and possible questions of privilege from members of parliament.
I do not think there is any doubt that if a member of parliament was assaulted that is unacceptable and is a breach of our privileges, not only the member in question but every one of us. That is the first proposition.
The second is on the issue of the picket itself. The picket, provided it is not on the grounds of Parliament Hill and provided it is done for information purposes and it respects the law, I think is legal. It has to respect the law in order to do so.
The allegations we have heard from many hon. members is that it was not done in a proper way. That is unacceptable as well.
The third proposition brought to us by another hon. member is that the president of the union maybe in contempt of parliament. I do not know if the Chair would want to rule immediately on that third proposition. I think it should be investigated before the Chair rules on it. I do not know whether the chair of the union personally not only authorized the picket in question but authorized it to be conducted in a manner which may have been illegal. That proposition is a little different from the others.
If I can get back to the original proposition, that members of parliament were assaulted, the 1751 Mason issue outlined in Erskine May makes it very clear that it is unacceptable even for a police officer to stop someone from attending to his duties in parliament. If it is not appropriate for someone who is a police officer to stop us from coming here, it is equally unacceptable for anyone else to try to do it.
I invite the Chair when examining the situation, because it is equally germane to this issue although slightly different, to determine whether the privileges that extend to members of parliament in our attendance here also extend either to the staff of members of parliament or even to the staff of Mr. Speaker. I was also approached earlier this day by a staff member of Mr. Speaker, someone who works for the Commons but not for a member of parliament, who informed me he had considerable difficulty in reaching his place of work to do a very essential task for us in this Chamber. So the Chair, no doubt, would want to look at that as well.
For these reasons, I would ask that the Chair not rule immediately and investigate all the points I have raised, and the come back to the House in order to see whether there is a prima facie case of privilege on all these points. But I am already convinced there is at least such a prima facie case in some of the points that have been raised, in particular the one involving molestation of a member.