Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague from Gatineau for his speech.
The Liberal Party's motion is one in which I have a keen interest. I was a member of the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics when the code was adopted.
Naturally, those of us who were on the committee at the time never thought this kind of situation would arise, but somebody said “conflict of interest” and a witness who had appeared before the committee launched legal action. One of our colleagues went out for a press conference during which he commented on the testimony, and then he became the subject of legal action.
The lawsuit was not about statements he allegedly made personally; it was about statements a witness made before the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics. That witness was former prime minister Brian Mulroney. He decided to take his defamatory libel suit to the courts.
Who would ever have thought that could happen? It had to be the Conservatives. I realize that they analyzed every flaw in the legislation to find a way to prevent the member from coming back because there was open war between Mr. Mulroney and the member for West Nova. They discovered that they could ask the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner to intervene because there might have been a conflict of interest with respect to a witness's lawsuit against the member who made the statement.
A lawsuit was filed by a witness, and as a result, the member can no longer speak in committee or in the House of Commons. The member is being sued in his official capacity. He was working on the committee and made a statement outside. It was not personal. It was work-related. This could happen to any of us here in the House of Commons. Any one of us could make a public statement, and a witness who appeared before the committee and was upset about that statement could simply file a lawsuit—guilty verdict optional.
Consequently, because of the loophole in the legislation, the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner concludes that, since legal proceedings have been instituted against the member for West Nova, he can no longer talk about this affair.
The member for West Nova is a Liberal, and I do not see eye to eye with him. He is part of the Liberal gang that dipped into the employment insurance fund, that did not make any improvements and that did a whole lot of things that did not help seniors. I do not agree with their philosophy.
However, this parliamentarian was elected by his constituents, and he has the right to say what he wants in committee and in this House—only not about this matter anymore. The Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner decided that because of Mr. Mulroney's lawsuit, the member could no longer talk about the Mulroney-Schreiber affair in committee or in the House of Commons. This is serious.
That is why the Bloc Québécois will oppose any procedure that would have this sort of effect. It does not matter that there was a loophole in the legislation; we just have to close it.
The Conservative member for Dufferin—Caledon is making fine statements. Great, he found the loophole.
But in this House, we have to say that this makes no sense. Our purpose in creating the position of Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner and adopting a code of ethics was not to take away our own right to speak. That is completely absurd and contrary to the whole meaning of democracy and the British parliamentary system.
The Conservatives need to think long and hard about this. Never in the British parliamentary system has there been a law preventing a member from rising to speak in committee or in the House. The Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner is well aware of this. There is a reason why, in her report, she says on page 24:
Concerns have been raised about the use of lawsuits, more particularly libel suits, to prevent a Member from performing his or her duties in the House of Commons. I cannot predict whether this may indeed become a problem and I hope it does not. Should this become a serious concern for Members, however, the Code could be adjusted to except libel suits from the ambit of “private interest” for the purposes of sections 8 and 13.
The flaw is that one must declare his or her personal interests, including any legal action being brought against oneself. That is fine, except that as soon as a member is sued, that prevents him or her from speaking or voting in relation to the events linked to the legal action.
To reiterate, the hon. member for West Nova is being sued for his work as a committee member, because of a statement made outside the House. I can understand why the Conservative members and the former prime minister, Mr. Mulroney, did not like the statement he made. Well, we did not appreciate the fact that he walked around hotels and everywhere else with $1000 bills in envelopes. We will wait to see what happens next.
On the other hand, in this case, a loophole was found that allowed Mulroney to sue the hon. member for West Nova. What does that mean? That member can no longer speak in committee or in this House to discuss the matter. This goes against the spirit of democracy and the parliamentary system.
All these laws give us full immunity precisely so we may speak openly, in this House and in committee, and say what we think about any subject, without fearing that we will be sued at every turn. That is the fear at this time, and the Conservatives must be aware of this.
I have no problem if they win in the Mulroney-Schreiber case, but I hope they realize that members cannot be silenced because of the threat of legal action. That makes no sense. We must put an end to this as soon as possible.
I repeat, I do not approve of the Liberal Party philosophy, and I agree with the hon. member for West Nova even less. He is a Liberal, after all, and he shows no mercy for seniors or unemployed workers. That is how the Liberals are. They take money and try to give it to their friends. We all saw what happened with the Liberals. Nevertheless, they are members of this House, they were elected by the people and they have the right to speak in this House on behalf of their constituents, on all matters.
That is the beauty of the parliamentary system: when people are elected, nothing in this House or in committee can prevent them from saying what they think. The Conservatives have discovered a flaw, a loophole, I agree, but it has to be repaired as quickly as possible because an entire democratic system is affected by this.
The entire philosophy behind the parliamentary system has to be protected. We have to see to it and that is why we have immunity in committee and in the House. Obviously, when we leave the House, this immunity is diminished, even nonexistent. We know all that. The fact remains that, despite the law we have passed, despite the code of ethics we gave ourselves, we have just created a loophole in the existing parliamentary system.
My colleague from Gatineau, a history teacher, told as about the very nice history of the parliamentary system going back to the British North America Act. That is just fine, but I look forward to moving away from the British parliamentary system and to Quebec having its own parliamentary system. Nonetheless, we have to acknowledge history, and the hon. member for Gatineau is an excellent history teacher.
The past may be an indication of the future. We want to protect the freedom of expression of parliamentarians so that they can express themselves clearly in committee and here in this House on all subjects without any constraints. If we are real parliamentarians and real defenders of democracy, we have to do everything we can to close this loophole. Even the Ethics Commissioner recognizes that.
I was one of the members who contributed to creating the code. We never expected to end up in the situation we are in today. We never thought we would see a suit filed by a committee witness against an hon. member, in this case the hon. member for West Nova, preventing him from speaking in this House and in committee.
This is an aberration that needs to be corrected as soon as possible. I hope that all hon. members will vote in favour of this Liberal motion and that it will be unanimously passed by this House, in order to preserve democracy, not for those who came before us, but for the generations that follow us.