Mr. Speaker, I rise on a question of privilege. Today, in response to questions during question period, the Minister of Foreign Affairs made an absolute and unqualified assertion of certain things pertaining to events in this House last Thursday. However, there is compelling evidence on the public record that the minister's assertions are plainly untrue.
Members of this House witnessed the minister's comments and are prepared to provide legal documentation to that effect. An audio tape records those remarks. The media has broadly reported the remarks in question.
That the incident in fact happened appears, Mr. Speaker, on the face of the record, to be undeniable. In that event, the minister has today presented an assertion to this House that is false and apparently deliberately so.
Such doubt about the minister's veracity cannot be allowed to persist. The matter cries out for greater clarity than that which exists today, for the minister may be irreparably compromised.
The privileges of members of this House are thus being infringed: first, by the lingering untruth; and, second, by the inability of the minister, apparently, to be believed. This matter needs an airing before the procedure committee of this House.
Mr. Speaker, if you find, on the basis of the evidence that is now in the public domain, that a prima facie case of privilege does in fact exist here, I would be prepared to move the appropriate motion.