Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order that has its origins in something that happened in the House on Tuesday when we were voting on private member's bills. There was a procedure followed or a certain kind of behaviour allowed by the Chair at that time which I would like you to consider and rule on.
I will refrain from using any analogies that pertain to the political dimension of what happened and how it might have to do with sheep losing track of the shepherd, trained seals missing the cue from the trainer or anything like that. Far be it for me to indulge in such metaphors. However, I am concerned that members were allowed to vote after they had already taken a position; that is to say, after they had already abstained.
As you know, Mr. Speaker, on private members' motions we vote from the back. However what happened, I am sure by coincidence, on the government side was that people in the back row voted and then subsequently all the way down to the front row, and certain people abstained. They must have known that their row was voting. People on either side of them were rising to have their names recorded. They abstained and then, although I am not sure of the reason, there was a look of dismay on some people's faces in the fifth, fourth, third and perhaps even the second row when people in the first row voted in a way that was perhaps unexpected. Subsequent to that, after the vote had been taken, we had a somewhat appalling display of obsequiousness. People rose in their places to say that they meant to vote a certain way. Perhaps they were just daydreaming or mentally absent in some other way when the vote was taken.
That is fine but my concern is that those votes should not have been counted. Those people had a chance to vote. They abstained and their vote should not have been recorded. I believe it was recorded. I would certainly want to urge you, Mr. Speaker, to make a ruling or whatever it is in your wisdom you choose to do in order to make sure that kind of thing is not tolerated again.