Before we move on to questions and comments, I must say I had already interrupted the member for Joliette at the beginning of his speech. Maybe I wanted to be more patient than usual.
Our standing orders say that we should not read a speech. I understand that the procedure has changed in the House recently. However, it gives me some concern when we have quotes, or when we read a text outside of our own speech, because I would not want to give the impression I approve of what the member for Joliette did during his speech. I think it is the first time such a situation occurs and I would not want to give the impression that we condone that practice.
I think we would all be better served if, we followed the House of Commons Procedure and Practice , the famous work by Messrs. Marleau and Montpetit. On page 517, under “Citation of documents”, it states:
There is no Standing Order which governs the citation of documents; the House is guided mainly by custom and precedents.
The first sentence of the second paragraph states:
A speech should not consist of a single long quotation or a series of quotations joined together with a few original sentences.
All I want to say is that we have gone as far as we could possibly go; some would even say we went a bit further than we should have. I wanted to bring this to the attention of the House so that members will not think we encourage such a practice.
It is nothing serious, just a little reminder, but such a practice left unchecked could be repeated and I want to prevent that.