Mr. Speaker, I will convince you if I am given a minute. I will go back to 1992 and quote from Hansard on the very same issue regarding breaches of privilege with regard to questions on the order paper. This is effectively shutting down a member of parliament.
On March 10, 1992, the then member for Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, who by the way is now the government House leader in charge of this file, rose on this very issue. The Speaker at the time heard the member out, which I am hoping you will do. The member at the time quoted from pages 70 and 71 of Erskine May's 20th edition which I will do regarding privilege. It is defined as:
The privileges of Parliament are rights which are “absolutely necessary for the due execution of its powers”. They are enjoyed by individual Members—
He went on to point out that Standing Order 39(4) of the House says that members can place up to four questions on the order paper at one time. Quoting from Hansard , March 10, 1992, the member said:
The point I want to make to you is that the government is systematically not answering questions that I place on the Order Paper. By not answering the questions that are there, I am unable to ask new questions.
That restricts the role of members of parliament to ask legitimate questions of the government. He continued:
In other words, once the Order Paper is plugged up with four questions, new questions cannot be asked.
He went on in detail—