Order, please. The Chair has a couple of rulings that I know Hon. members have been sitting on the edge of their seats waiting for. I am prepared to give these rulings this afternoon.
I am now prepared to rule on the question of privilege raised by the hon. Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister on February 28 concerning communications issued on the Canadian Alliance website and by various members of that party in relation to the deliberations of the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs with regard to its study of conflicting statements made to the House by the Minister of National Defence.
I would like to thank the hon. parliamentary secretary for bringing this matter to the attention of the Chair, as well as the hon. members for Okanagan--Shuswap, Témiscamingue, and Richmond--Arthabaska, who all spoke when this matter was first raised.
I would also like to thank the hon. Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons, the leader of the opposition in the House, as well as the members for Portage--Lisgar, Lakeland, Renfrew--Nipissing--Pembroke, Toronto--Danforth and Beauport--Montmorency--Côte-de-Beaupré, who have all contributed.
The hon. Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister argued that the Canadian Alliance had breached parliamentary privilege by the language used in certain statements on its website and through certain of its members' comments to the media to the effect that the Minister of National Defence and the Prime Minister had deliberately misled the House and concealed important information through false statements made in the House.
Members need not be reminded that the minister denied that he deliberately misled the House or that the matter was referred to the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs for study. Members had the opportunity to criticize and to challenge the words of the minister, both in the House and during the proceedings of the standing committee, as is normal during debate. The Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs has now reported on the matter of the statements of the hon. Minister of National Defence. It is up to the House to deal with the report and its findings.
However, this question of privilege remains outstanding. I ask hon. members to bear with me as I place the question in context.
The House of Commons Procedure and Practice states the following on page 74:
Freedom of speech permits Members to speak freely in the Chamber during a sitting or in committees during meetings while enjoying complete immunity from prosecution for any comment they might make. This freedom is essential for the effective working of the House. ...Though this is often criticized, the freedom to make allegations which the Member genuinely believes at the time to be true, or at least worthy of investigation, is fundamental.
It continues at page 76:
Members are therefore cautioned that utterances which are absolutely privileged when made within a parliamentary proceeding may not be when repeated in another context, such as in a press release, ...on an Internet site, (in) a television or radio interview--
That being said, the privilege of freedom of speech is not limitless. Indeed, members will recall that during the committee's study, the Chair here in the House had, on several occasions, to caution members that it was unparliamentary to state that the Minister of National Defence had deliberately misled the House, had given false information, or had lied to the House.
I have carefully considered the arguments submitted to me concerning certain communication documents of the official opposition and certain comments made by the hon. members for Portage—Lisgar, Lakeland and Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke.
Based on our practice and precedents, I have had to conclude that no prima facie case of privilege exists. Nevertheless, though there is no breach of privilege, there is a cause for concern.
These various statements and communications were, in my opinion, intemperate and ill-advised. If we do not preserve the tradition of accepting the word of a fellow member, which is a fundamental principle of our parliamentary system, then freedom of speech, both inside and outside the House, is imperilled.
I must also say that I am greatly troubled by the fact that the language complained of in this case actually appears again in the text of the dissenting opinion from the Canadian Alliance. Pursuant to motion of the committee, that opinion has been printed as an appendix to the 50th report of the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs.
Of course, Standing Order 108(1)(a) permits a committee to print dissenting views as appendices. Indeed, so common have these appendices become and such are the pressures of time when a committee completes its work, that committees often agree to print these dissenting appendices, sight unseen. This is a potentially dangerous development since it gives the authors of the dissent a virtual carte blanche in terms of their use of language. I would appeal to the chairs of committees and to all hon. members to pay close attention to the impact of committee decisions in this regard.
Let me be clear about this: As your Speaker, I am not commenting on the substance of dissenting opinions or on the content of committee reports themselves. Committees have been and must remain masters of their own procedure. But in deciding on the language and the form of these texts, I believe that it behooves all hon. members to ensure that our parliamentary practice with regard to language and form is fully respected.
I hope that all members will consider carefully what I have said in this ruling and that they will be guided accordingly, so that even in the heat of debate on contentious subjects, they will be mindful of our practice and respectful of the traditions that serve this House well.
Once again, I thank all hon. members who intervened in this matter and I hope that these comments will be helpful.