Mr. Speaker, I advise the House that we will take appropriate time during the government debates to use its allotted times in concurrence motions and so on. We will get our time back on this whether government members like it or not. They will have to pay for the time.
This is a serious accusation placed before three of my colleagues which cannot go without action, so I will recommend a motion here today that perhaps will fix the issue. It is time that perhaps we take this issue to a committee and study it. We will also be insisting on a various number of witnesses, which I will outline a little later. We have no problem at all in bringing this to a committee and having that motion brought up.
My contribution to this question of privilege will point out a few flaws in the argument put forward by the Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister. The member's complaint has identified press releases and statements made outside the House by certain members of the opposition regarding the minister of defence, namely that the minister of defence deliberately misled the House.
The Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister has not demonstrated how his privileges have been breached by statements made by other members about another member. On page 247 of Joseph Maingot's Parliamentary Privilege in Canada it states:
In the event that another Member wished to have these same matters debated, the matters would have to be brought forward on notice...
On the other hand, the Minister of National Defence being the so-called victim could raise this matter with you, Mr. Speaker, and seek your opinion on whether he has a prima facie question of privilege which, as you know, would allow him to move a motion without notice and have that motion take precedence over all other business. It is not up to the Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister to bring the grievances of the Minister of National Defence to this House.
It was suggested by the member for Okanagan--Shuswap on February 28 at page 9389 of
Hansard:
As the member across the way has stated, this issue is being dealt with in committee. I would think that is where it should be dealt with first.
If the member were to demonstrate how these statements are offensive to the committee he is free to do so, but I fail to see how these words would be offensive to the committee when these words describe the mandate of the committee's study.
On February 28 the Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister claimed on page 9388 of Hansard :
...even though when a member brings a question of privilege, at that particular time and during that motion...the member is allowed to use a term like misleading the House. That language is not allowed in parliament under normal circumstances and the fact that this charge has been made in the House and referred to committee I would suggest does not give licence for members to be repeating these things outside the House.
Mr. Speaker, I would argue the very opposite is true. By virtue of a legitimate procedure of this House a charge against the minister of defence of misleading this House has been laid. A decision of the House has sent that charge to committee. Because of these decisions the question of whether or not the minister deliberately or inadvertently misled this House is in the public domain.
The member for Lakeland and the member for Renfrew--Nipissing--Pembroke did not put it there. While the member for Portage--Lisgar initiated this debate he did so legitimately as he described earlier.
Mr. Speaker, once you put the motion to the House it was this House that put the issue of the minister's reputation in the public domain and on the records of the House and of the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs. My colleagues have been invited to and have a duty to comment on this issue.
On page 86 of Marleau and Montpetit Speaker Fraser is quoted as saying on April 14, 1987:
“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. It is obvious that the unjust damaging of a reputation could constitute such an impediment.”
I can see that the reputation of the minister of defence is damaged, but it is damaged by his own actions and the decision of this House and the investigation presently underway by the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs into the conflicting statements he made in the House. The damage to his reputation is not unjust. This House has the right to question a minister's actions and the standing committee has an obligation to question the minister's intent.
Mr. Speaker, if you review the comments made by my Alliance colleagues and cited by the Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister, you will note that they never detract from the question before the standing committee. They do not introduce any new charge or accusation that would further tarnish the reputation of the minister of defence.
For example, the press release dated February 26 cited by the Prime Minister's parliamentary secretary states:
It is clear that Minister of Defence Art Eggleton deliberately misled the House of Commons when he changed his story about when he knew about the full details of capture and turnover of prisoners.
One of the tasks of the committee is to determine whether or not the minister deliberately misled the House. Therefore this statement is a fair comment considering the committee's mandate and the debate emerging in and out of committee. The parliamentary secretary read more of the press release into the record basically saying the same thing but implicating other members. He attributes the following statement to the member for Lakeland:
The evidence is now very clear that the Minister of Defence deliberately misled the House of--