Mr. Speaker, I rise to respond to the question of privilege raised by the Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister on Thursday, February 28.
First, I ask for the Speaker's indulgence in the remarks that I am about to make. I have had a considerable amount of time to reflect on the events surrounding the Minister of National Defence and the Prime Minister which have led to the question of privilege by the Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister.
While I appreciate that my comments are to be directed to the matter at hand and not debate, the seriousness of the issue at hand demands a full discussion as the health of our parliamentary institution is at stake.
Let us examine what was said outside the House and how it was said. The Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister is objecting to a media release that was posted on the Canadian Alliance website. Specifically, he gives the following quote attributed to me:
I hope that [the Minister of National Defence] will now be willing to come forward and admit that his misleading statements were indeed intentional. Now that his explanation has been contradicted, the right thing to do would be to admit that he deliberately misled the House of Commons, and Canadians.
As a member of the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs, I want the record to show that I have indeed been very careful in not seeking out media interviews or issuing any media releases from my office on the subject before the committee.
On the other hand, my colleagues on the government side have had freedom of speech outside the House when referring to committee proceedings.
It is with much consideration then that I look at this question of privilege, particularly when the Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister makes the comment that he is uncomfortable with the timing of his question of privilege.
Perhaps the Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister would be more uncomfortable if he would be required to confirm to you, Mr. Speaker, and to this House that at precisely the same time he was rising in the House on his question of privilege, the Prime Minister's deputy minister, the Clerk of the Privy Council, delivered a letter to the chair of the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs, the member for Peterborough.
The letter accuses me, in the words of the Prime Minister's deputy, of alleging that the Deputy Clerk of the Privy Council, and I quote the letter:
--that the Deputy Clerk...may have intentionally misled Parliamentarians with respect to the deployment of the JTF-2 on a military operation outside Canada.
By way of explanation, the Prime Minister's deputy then quoted the Chief of the Defence Staff, as if the Deputy Clerk himself were not able to answer on his own when in fact he is counsel, security and intelligence co-ordinator for the Privy Council.
I ask, Mr. Speaker, that you dismiss this question of privilege on the grounds that it is an attempt to intimidate a member of parliament for the questions asked in a committee of this House looking into the misleading statements that were made by the Minister of National Defence.
I believe this point to be of such a serious nature that I will now read into the record the relevant sections from the Prime Minister's deputy's letter to the chair of the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs as well as my response to the chair. It states:
I must also express to you my strong concern about the allegation by the Member for Renfrew--Nipissing--Pembroke--