Mr. Speaker, either way, under the current interpretation, just slapping a lawsuit on someone imposes some sort of pecuniary interest, gain or loss. When one sues, obviously one is trying to get money.
It brings me back to some comments the member for Dufferin—Caledon made about the lawsuit. Having notice of a lawsuit because one reads about it in the Globe and Mail that one is being sued is not the way the system works. The system allows people to file a claim and, in most cases across this country, they have six months to serve it.
The injustice and the political chicanery that took place here was that the member for Dufferin—Caledon had a copy of the notice of action with statement of claim attached before the member for West Nova was served. He said that he went down to the clerk's office and got a copy of it. Should the member for West Nova have done the same?
In fact, getting into litigation as implied undertakings of confidentiality, which that members knows about, it surprises me that he would put the member of West Nova or any of us, as the member for Winnipeg Centre said, any of us who might now be sued, the law says that we must have notice of it when we are served, not when we read about in the Globe and Mail.
This lawsuit frenzy, which that side over there seems intent on, will destroy not only this institution but individuals in this institution. As a recent poll shows, it is working counter to the Conservative government's claim that it wants it to be crystal clean, clear, transparent and accountable. It is not working.
Why do the Conservatives not get back to the nuts and bolts of Parliament? Why do we not work in an environment where if we say something in here we will not be sued for it. Why do we not have more respect for the old girl that is this place, the Parliament of Canada?