Mr. Speaker, I have two points of order but I will start with the first one, which is regarding a lock-up announcement for the Romanow report.
A letter was sent around from the Minister of Health indicating the commission's conditions for the lock-up tomorrow at 7:30 a.m. As you know, Mr. Speaker, we have our own practices with respect to lock-ups and they are laid out in Marleau and Montpetit. The practice allows staff to attend and allows members to leave at any time they want. The commission's rules do not comply with our practice. As they say, when in Rome, or in this case, when in Parliament. On page 767 of Marleau and Montpetit it states in the footnotes:
Members' research staff are usually allowed to attend... Members may not be prevented from leaving a lock-up room.
While the commission's conditions do not comply with these two practices I would think that since the lock-up is taking place on our turf, for a report intended for our use in the House, then our rules should apply.
I would ask that you do whatever you need to do, Mr. Speaker, to ensure that members' staff are permitted to attend this lock-up.