Mr. Speaker, I listened with attention to the speech of a distinguished parliamentarian who mounted a masterful defence of delay and inaction, but the matter before the House, in my view, is a very direct infringement of the privileges of a sitting member, an attempt to deny him the possibility in this House of speaking on a matter of urgent public interest, namely, the Mulroney-Schreiber affair.
This is not a partisan matter. If our situations were reversed, I am sure that members on the opposite side would be outraged at the inability of a member to stand up and speak clearly on the Mulroney-Schreiber affair. If this stands, libel chill will silence privileges in this House.
The injunction to delay and send it to a committee that is not sitting does not provide a remedy. I want to know in fact whether he agrees with a notable statement made by a member of his own party, the Conservative MP for Edmonton—St. Albert, who said:
Lawsuits for statements made by an MP outside the House are one thing. Denying MPs the right to speak in the House on matters of public interest is outrageous.
[The decision by the commissioner], if allowed to stand, is a dangerous infringement on the protection of freedom of speech in Parliament which is enshrined in the Bill of Rights (1689) (U.K.) and forms part of the Constitution of Canada.
It seems to me that member of Parliament from the Conservative Party has got it exactly right. I wonder why the member chooses a policy of delay and denial of the severity of the issue and why his party is not prepared to support an urgent matter to correct what is clearly an infringement of the rights of all parliamentarians.