Mr. Speaker, I beg your indulgence. As you know, following question period I raised the issue of a report that had been referred to by the Parliamentary Secretary to the Solicitor General. I indicated that my understanding of the practice and procedures of the House was that because he did not refer specifically to the report, I could only request that it be tabled.
I have had an opportunity in the intervening period—and this is the first opportunity I have had, which is why I beg the indulgence of the House under this point of order—to review the blues.
The Parliamentary Secretary to the Solicitor General said “I am pleased to report to the House today that review is now complete”, referring to the SIRC review, “and has been submitted to the solicitor general”. This is important. He says “There are three points in that submission that I would like to refer to all members of the House”. He is referring to points contained in the report. He continues, saying “The first is that there was no political interference as alleged in the media. The second is the draft report in fact indicated it was deeply flawed. The third is that there is no evidence of any substantial nature that was part of that draft report”.
In his response to my supplementary question, at the conclusion of his response I refer you to the sentence where he stated “The facts today are evident and they are presented here in the House”.
I refer to the House of Commons Procedure and Practice , page 518, chapter 13. I would like to read a portion of a paragraph pertaining to tabling of documents and speeches.
As Speaker Glen noted in a 1941 ruling, “an honourable member is not entitled to read from communications unless prepared to place them on the Table of the House. The principle upon which this is based is that where information is given to the House, the House itself is entitled to the same information as the honourable member who may quote the document.”
Mr. Speaker, my argument is simply this. I recognize that I have not had an opportunity to call the parliamentary secretary's office but I did want to be on the record as early as I possibly could, at the earliest possible moment, and move from making a request of the government but rather to state that the government really must follow parliamentary practice where clearly the solicitor general's parliamentary secretary kept referring to these documents.
At the risk of being too repetitious, I am going to read this again. He said “There are three points in that submission that I would like to refer to all members of the House”. Then he elucidates on those three points.
I note that there is a House official for the government in the House today. I therefore request that he undertake to see that this SIRC review which was submitted to the solicitor general, which I have subsequently found out was submitted about a week ago, is tabled forthwith.