Mr. Speaker, the member for Timmins—James Bay made a couple of incorrect statements. He incorrectly made an assertion about the conduct of the member for Cambridge in his chairmanship of the procedure and House affairs committee. Happily, the committee evidence will reflect and demonstrate that his assertion about the arbitrary nature of the decisions made by the chair was actually incorrect.
I would also note that his suggestion that if there are problems on one committee that justifies a suspension of the rules on another committee is clearly nonsense. It reminds me a bit of the ad where the football referee says, “I made a wrong call against team A, but don't worry, in the next half I am going to make an equally egregious call against team B and things will even themselves out”. That is now how we work here.
I do agree with something that the Liberal deputy whip said in her comments. She said that since the chair of the ethics committee is not here today to respond that it would be inappropriate for you, Mr. Speaker, to rush to a decision today. There is some wisdom in that. It seems to me that it would be appropriate to take your time and make a decision in the appropriate manner. It would be appropriate in particular to take your time and deal with this because we do not want to have a situation in which the chair of that committee makes further decisions that are abusive toward the rules by which we govern ourselves here and that put this institution into disrepute.
Therefore, a decision as to whether the chair acted in a manner that is so egregious that he ought to resign is something that can wait until the House returns this autumn. However, I think you ought to take the pre-emptive measure of ensuring that the committee does not sit this summer and continue to engage, potentially, in abusive behaviour unchecked and uncontrolled over an entire summer.
In saying that, Mr. Speaker, I would draw your attention to something that, unless it is simply untrue, though there is committee evidence that will demonstrate it, is clearly an abuse of his position, and that is in not allowing members of Parliament on the Speakers' list to rise to speak and calling a question when other members have not yet been heard from. There is no excuse one can dream up.
One cannot say that the members were being repetitive. One can argue that an individual member can be cut off for being repetitive, even for repeating a point made by another member, but how could someone not yet on the speaker's list know that unless he has some sort of telepathic power that the rest of us in the House are not bestowed with? It seems to me that that kind of abuse this summer would be a very dangerous thing.
Mr. Speaker, I want to draw your attention to the fact that this matter that has been before the procedure and House affairs committee, which was the proper committee for it, as long ago as last August has been the source of the acrimony, partisanship and poison, which I think was a word used by my colleague from Timmins—James Bay, is the source of the problem. It is not, as he suggests, the moral inferiority of one of the parties in the House.
To allow a highly partisan subject to be discussed over the summer under the chairmanship of a chair who we are asserting has acted in a manner that is wildly outside the allowable role of a chair, is a very dangerous thing. The fact that the member has absented himself and is not here today is no reason why he, therefore, ought to be given free rein over the summer to do what he will in his role as chair on a highly partisan matter where every vote, whether in this committee or the previous committee, was taken entirely on partisan lines. Chairs were challenged regularly and challenges were pre-emptory.
An examination of the record for the procedure and House affairs committee shows speakers were regularly cut off, interrupted by each other and points of order were called on each other. On this kind of subject matter, it seems to me that over the summer it could do a lot of damage to the credibility of our institution.
Mr. Speaker, I also would draw your attention to the fact that as long ago as last September, I made an argument before the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs that in discussing this matter at all we were violating the sub judice convention in which matters that are before the courts ought not to be dealt with in parliamentary committees because we are simply not set up to be effective institutions for making decisions as to the guilt or lack of guilt of any party in a court proceeding and it could taint court proceedings.
Therefore, to have a parliamentary committee, under the chairmanship of someone who is clearly willing to violate the rules egregiously over an entire summer, with no recourse to shutting it down or stopping it, or limiting the damage that it can do in a matter that is before the courts, which is highly partisan and very charged, seems to me is a recipe for the kind of disaster that would seriously put this institution into disrepute.
Finally, Mr. Speaker, I want to draw to your attention a very important rule of this place.
Committee chairs are given powers, but they are given no more power than the Speaker has in the House of Commons. We have had a chair who has asserted, effectively, that he has powers that exceed those of the Speaker of the House of Commons and that it is okay for him to do things that are not permitted in this place.
If we allow him to continue to carry on in this manner over an entire summer, as he engages in a court of star chamber, we set the precedent that it is okay to do that, not only in other committees, but in this place. We should all ask ourselves if we really want to unilaterally rewrite the rules so the minorities can be shut down, so free speech can be cut off and so dissent can be destroyed? Is that really what we want to do in this place?
This is the reason we do not want to have this committee sit this summer. This is why we want to ensure that you have the time to make your ruling, Mr. Speaker, so the committee can conduct its business appropriately in the autumn after the House returns.