I am certainly prepared to examine the question of privilege raised by the hon. member for Toronto Centre in some detail and get back to the House if necessary.
My initial reaction is that we have a disagreement as to what was said and I thought the explanation offered by the Minister of Public Safety appeared to deal with the issue, but of course I will look at the questions and answers that were given today on this subject as part of the issue, since those are the ones that were complained of in question period.
Having said that, I think the government House leader raised a very good point about decorum in the House, which I stress the importance of to hon. members, and in preparation of questions particularly, because we do allow preambles to questions in this House. Members do have a limited time but they can make preambles and preambles can contain statements that we hope are always accurate. Accuracy I think is important, as both the Minister of Public Safety and the government House leader pointed out.
The member for Toronto Centre pointed out the importance of accuracy as well, although he was making it in reference to answers. If the allegations in the preambles were more accurate, I suspect maybe we would get more accurate answers, and if we did not, we would have more complaints.
I would urge all hon. members, in the preparation of their questions and answers, and I know there is some preparation that goes into this, as spontaneous as it may look from time to time in the House, to have due regard to the actual statements and references that are made, so that they are an accurate reflection of what they are quoting from or what they are alleging someone else said, rather than a summary which may distort what in fact was said and put words in the mouth of some other hon. member, which the hon. member later will deny having said.
It is not helpful to our debate if there are inaccuracies of this kind, and it is a question period to elicit information and to hold governments to account. That is the whole purpose of it and so questions can be framed in such a way that they do not necessarily distort what members of the House or ministers may have said on other occasions.
I think that is very important for all of us and I would urge hon. members on both sides of the House to bear that in mind in the course of preparation for question period, whether it be for questions or for answers, and as I say, I will get back on the question of privilege later if need be.
The Minister of Canadian Heritage is rising on a point of order.