Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to have this opportunity to speak to Bill C-34, as Parliament resumes. I recall my conversations with some reporters on June 15, when they were asking me what I was going to do for my three month vacation. It has to be said that the fact that Parliament is not sitting does not necessarily mean that the MPs, regardless of what side of the House they sit on, were on holiday for three months. We are, certainly, human beings who need a rest like everybody else, like all other people who work. We took the time to rest and recharge our batteries, but we were not on holiday for three months. Not me anyway.
This morning we have an important exercise to carry out with respect to Bill C-34, which will create the position of ethics commissioner. We are at report stage and second reading.
In a ironic twist of events, only this past week, the RCMP at last laid criminal charges against a Montreal communications firm, Communication Coffin by name, in what has become known as the sponsorship scandal.
I would remind hon. members that we are occasionally stopped by people on the street or at the shopping centre who want to know what our role is, what the importance of the Bloc Quebecois is in Ottawa, when there is no referendum on Quebec sovereignty in the offing.
I would remind everyone that the party that raised this whole matter of the sponsorship scandal is the Bloc Quebecois. This ought to be part of our collective memory, but memories are not, unfortunately, always reliable.
We called upon the public works minister, now the government House leader, but very briefly public works minister, to resign, in light of the circumstances we all will recall. I will spare members any mention of the person who was pPublic works minister three cabinet shuffles ago, the Hon. Alfonso Gagliano, the former member for Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel. As a reward for services rendered, he was appointed Canadian ambassador to Denmark. Imagine, this was a fine reward for all services rendered, particularly in connection with the sponsorship affair.
I have no intention of going over the history of this sponsorship program. The police investigation will take care of that anyway. An initial charge is expected to be laid, and we hope that more will follow in the whole issue of what actions were taken by Groupaction and so on.
When we questioned the government on behalf of the people of Quebec, we in the Bloc Quebecois were trying to determine whether there was a connection between these sponsorships and the whole matter of subsidies or contributions to election campaigns made under the table to the Liberal Party.
This was the forum where we could raise these issues, hence the importance of having a real ethics councillor, and not a political advisor like Mr. Wilson under the current Prime Minister.
We called for a real ethics counsellor who would report to Parliament.
This government and this Prime Minister, looking for some kind of political legacy entitling them to a few lines in the book of Canadian political history, tabled, or rather had the government House leader table Bill C-34, establishing these ethics officer and ethics commissioner positions. There will be two, as we know, one for the House of Commons and one for the Senate.
The Bloc Quebecois maintains its support for Bill C-34, especially since this matter is among our priorities. In fact, we have been asking for and demanding this for several years.
This morning, we are debating an amendment put forward by our colleague from the New Democratic Party to make the decisions made by the ethics counsellor conditional on or subject to the approval of the Federal Court. In other words, these decisions would become conditional and be referred to the Federal Court. Without lapsing into legalism, for the benefit of those listening, we are talking about possibly asking the Federal Court to review a committee decision on ethics.
Our honourable colleague from the NDP asks that we withdraw clause 38 from the bill and thus remove the ethics counsellor from the list of persons who cannot be challenged in the Federal Court. At the moment, that list of persons and institutions includes the Senate, the House of Commons and all committees or members of either of these Houses. Their decisions are not subject to challenge in the Federal Court.
At first sight, one might think, “That is a good amendment. Decisions made by the ethics commissioner could be reviewed by the Federal Court.” In theory, I agree. But in practical terms, the members of the Bloc Quebecois disagree. That is why we shall continue to oppose and vote against the amendment proposed by the hon. NDP member. We consider that it is detrimental to parliamentary privilege.
Parliamentary privilege is what protects us. It allows parliamentarians to do their work effectively within this chamber and also within the committees, which are legal extensions of the House of Commons.
If we want members of Parliament to be free to raise issues and questions—and that is our role—I think that parliamentary privilege must be respected. For these reasons, we will not vote in favour of the amendment proposed by the hon. member.
In fact, it is clear from the Federal Court Act, especially the definitions in section 2, that the Office of the Ethics Counsellor is comparable to a federal board, commission or other tribunal. The act refers to a federal board, commission or other tribunal, all of which are subject to the Federal Court Act.
So, there are enormous political implications. As I mentioned earlier, if the Federal Court can review decisions made by the ethics commissioner, this inevitably gives the judicial branch, meaning the courts, oversight of the political branch in terms of the balance of powers in our British parliamentary system. This is our current system. Quebec's National Assembly is also based on the British parliamentary tradition and the same comments apply.
We must be clear that this right of review of the ethics commissioner's decisions no longer serves a purpose when it comes to requesting a review of a decision about a minister's behaviour. The ethics commissioner can only issue opinions about a minister's behaviour.
In short, when it comes to decisions about members, the ethics commissioner must apply the rules concerning members implemented by the House of Commons. In our opinion, an appeal by an individual of a decision made in that context before the Federal Court constitutes challenging parliamentary privilege. The House of Commons is responsible for making decisions about the behaviour of its members insofar as it relates to the fulfillment of their parliamentary duties.
I am not suggesting the possibility of excluding appeals when it comes to the actions of parliamentarians outside their parliamentary duties. As a result, we believe that the Federal Court cannot play this role and, therefore, this amendment must be defeated.