Mr. Speaker, I will be brief. I just want to again point out to you the House leader's argument, which is that because parts of this bill were introduced in the last parliament, this parliament does not need to have the same kind of briefing.
However, members of our caucus were approached by the media as they came into the House of Commons and were asked to comment on that bill. These are new members of parliament who never had the honour of serving in the last parliament. How on earth could the government House leader use that argument?
Mr. Speaker, I just want to bring your attention to page 86 of Marleau and Montpetit. Speaker Fraser ruled at an earlier time that:
The privileges of a Member are violated by any action which might impede him or her in the fulfilment of his or her duties and functions.
The privileges of a member are violated when any action impedes his or her ability to do the job. On the next page, page 87, Speaker Jerome actually ruled that there is also a prima facie contempt of the House that exists when a government official, one that deliberately misleads a minister, has “impeded a Member in the performance of his duties and consequently obstructed the House itself”.
In other words it does not matter, I would argue, whether it was the officials giving the briefing who somehow fouled up something so that a briefing was given when it was not given to other members. It does not matter whether it was the minister who fouled up and whether it was deliberate or not.
What happened is that actions were taken today which impeded members of parliament from doing their jobs and by so doing, Mr. Speaker, I feel you must find that this is a prima facie case of contempt. I urge you to ask the member to put the appropriate motion, which is to move this into committee where a full investigation can be made and it can come back to the House with the appropriate recommendations.