Mr. Speaker, I rise on a question of privilege. I am thankful for this opportunity to add some points on a matter that was raised as a question of privilege by the chair of the public accounts committee on Monday, February 10.
At that time allegations were made that I may have committed a breach of privilege as a member of Parliament or be in contempt of Parliament for releasing information regarding a draft report being dealt with by the public accounts committee on the subject of the Groupaction sponsorship scandals.
I should point out that this allegation has more to do with my position as the critic of the official opposition than it does any breach of privilege as a member of Parliament in the House.
I will point out that clearly someone did release information about the draft report being dealt with by the public accounts committee because on January 31 the National Post wrote quite a comprehensive article about the contents of this draft report in great detail. We believe that someone did release a copy of that draft report to the National Post . I want to say categorically here and now, that person was not me.
Further, information that was written in the National Post was picked up by other subsequent newspapers. I would argue that once it was printed in the National Post it became part of the public domain. Other newspapers that were in fact part of the same media chain and own the National Post started to use information that was printed first in the National Post . I did not believe that any comments made by me about the article in the National Post breached parliamentary privilege.
I am very aware of the rules of the House of Commons. Every day that I take my seat in the House of Commons I am very aware of the honour that is mine to be a member of Parliament and I would never knowingly contravene the rules of the House of Commons.
Having said that, I would like to add that one of the points raised by the chair of the public accounts committee in his criticism of me had some merit in that I did schedule a news conference for Monday, February 10, where I planned to speak about some of the issues surrounding the Groupaction affair. Some of those issues were in the National Post already. When it was brought to my attention that holding a news conference to talk about those topics would in fact be crossing that line the news conference was cancelled. It never took place. I do not believe that anything that I have done or said subsequent to that day in any way breaches parliamentary privilege.
I am glad to have this opportunity to express my opinion and clear that up. I believe the issue is more a matter of the concentration of ownership in the media, where when one newspaper gets a story its fellow newspapers in that chain often comment on the same thing. Someone leaked that draft report and I share the concern of the chair of the public accounts committee that it was wrong. That person was not me. With that, I thank the House for its time.