Mr. Speaker, I am rising on a question of privilege in my own attempt to be helpful to the Chair in connection with a matter of privilege raised by the member for Brampton—Springdale last week. I rise principally because of reports that the member for Calgary East, who had been mentioned, indicated publicly that he would not be attending and rising in the House to deal with it.
The first question I would put to the Chair is whether or not that was a question of privilege. I know the Chair must determine that in the matter of parliamentary friendship groups but this, I would urge upon the Chair, is a matter of participation in a parliamentary activity and related to parliamentary responsibilities.
I would point out that these groups have a membership of MPs and senators. The executives are often chosen based on membership of the House and Senate. The meetings take place on parliamentary premises almost all of the time and both governments and diplomats make use of these groups for bilateral relations with Canada and Parliament.
I am urging that you accept that these parliamentary friendship groups are a crystallized and manifest accretion to the working context of members of the House, perhaps one that did not exist 100 or 200 years ago when the foundations of parliamentary privilege were born.
Second, was the member intimidated? I would put to the Chair that if the member felt intimidated then she was intimidated.
I draw reference here to what is sometimes called the thin skull theory in Tort law. You will be the best judge, Mr. Speaker, of whether or not the words and the body language constituted an intimidation of the member. However, there were words used right before and right after the formal meeting in question and I urge upon the Chair to recognize that the issue may not be the words, it may be the intimidation that is the issue.
Last, these things occur between members from time to time. They occur actually in a lot of different places, including on hockey teams, in offices and in churches between people and their day to day activities. I think it would be very helpful if the member for Calgary East would attend, rise and help us all, including the Chair, to sort this out in the proper way so that we can deal with it and move on.