Mr. Speaker, when you stood up, I was about to say that I do so today because new information has become available today, further confirming my assertion that the office of the Leader of the Opposition and also the hon. member for Ajax—Pickering were acting in contempt of Parliament when they retained and selectively leaked correspondence to the media, claiming it was new information proving that in 2000 illegal inducements had been provided to cause a Reform MP to resign his seat.
On March 22, the member for Ajax—Pickering issued a press release announcing that he had handed the documents over to the RCMP and that these documents constituted new evidence of illegal acts. He said:
The atrocious activity brought to light by these documents represents possible Criminal Code violations, but also a gross betrayal of the public trust. [The Minister of Public Safety] must step aside while the matter is being investigated.
An article in today's Ottawa Citizen confirms that the RCMP has had possession of copies of these documents for six years, that they do not represent new evidence of anything and that this was never a case of unlawful activity or breach of the public trust.
Thus, a false allegation, which was made a double wrong by the fact that the hon. member's press release falsely stated that the documents “came anonymously into his possession” when in fact they had been handed to him by staff at the opposition leader's office, has been allowed to stand for a month. It is worth noting that the untrue allegation was made at a moment when an election seemed to be in the offing and that it has taken 35 days, or about the length of a writ period, for the truth to be finally reported, correcting these allegations.
The fact that this has been allowed to stand for a month and the fact that the press release containing the false allegations remains on the hon. member's website, as we speak, demonstrates that if allowed to stand unchallenged, his manner of behaviour would place extraordinary novel constraints on the ability of all members to carry out their business, by the need to take extraordinary security measures to ensure that no documents could ever, even when presented to the public under false pretenses, be used in such a manner.
This represents a novel impediment to the ability of the House to do its business and therefore is a contempt of Parliament.