Mr. Speaker, I very much appreciated the speech the hon. member for Toronto Centre just gave. I know he is new to this House and I think he has a great deal of potential here. We will continue to listen to his speeches now and again to see if he stays on the same path.
Of course, today's debate has to do with the freedom of speech of elected members of the House of Commons. It is an extremely important issue that forms the very foundation of the parliamentary system and our work as legislators here in the House.
We all know that, since May 7, 2008, the hon. member for West Nova has lost his right to free speech within the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics as well as in the House of Commons, because of a decision by the Ethics Commissioner in the Mulroney-Schreiber case.
Incidentally, I will be sharing my time with the hon. member for Argenteuil—Papineau—Mirabel.
It is important, and I said this from the outset, for members to have freedom of expression to do their work as legislators properly. This right goes as far back as the English Bill of Rights of 1689. Mr. Speaker, I know that you were certainly among those who thought of the Bill of Rights. In this House, this goes back to another time, namely the BNAA, 1867. I am not talking about AA as in Alcoholics Anonymous, but the Constitution Act, 1867 and the Parliament of Canada Act.
It is extremely important for members to be able to work for the advancement of society as it evolves and in accordance with the duty we have to our electors.
Parliamentary immunity is necessary for members to be able to do their work. We have to avoid allowing a lawsuit against one hon. member from becoming a way to prevent all elected members of the House of Commons from doing their work as legislators. Can we say that enough?
Imagine if the rich and powerful sued the 308 members of the House of Commons with the evil intention of preventing them from speaking and legislating one way or another. We have to avoid that scenario. We have to prevent the intimidation and manipulation of the democratic process by such suits against elected members. Imagine 180 members of the opposition suing the Prime Minister to prevent him from speaking on a certain subject. We cannot allow that to happen.
We are in a similar situation with respect to our colleague in this House, our Acadian friend, the hon. member for West Nova. As you can see, Mr. Speaker, we have to prevent such a situation from happening. I hope you will be among those who vote in favour of the motion presented by the Liberal Party of Canada, as the Bloc Québécois will be. We know that you are a fine democrat and that you are in favour of the principle that I have just outlined.
The Bloc Québécois is in favour of the motion. We must protect the freedom of speech of parliamentarians and those they represent. We absolutely must keep the door closed on the use of SLAPP suits against elected members. The ethics commissioner herself opened the door to parliamentarians by writing, on page 24 of her report:
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 [this is still the ethics commissioner speaking] 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 ethics commissioner was already expressing concern. Unfortunately, this happened, and fortunately, we are going to work together to correct this situation.
The opposition members responded by adopting a resolution in the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics. The Conservatives, as expected, opposed this resolution and prevailed with the Speaker of the House on a technicality—I repeat, on a technicality.
After trying to muzzle the parliamentary press gallery, women's groups and minority groups funded by the court challenges program, the Conservative government is now trying to gag the opposition, which is deplorable.
Moreover, in the wake of the Cadman affair, the Prime Minister threatened to sue the Liberal Party of Canada and its leader, the member for Saint-Laurent—Cartierville, as well as the Liberal members for Etobicoke—Lakeshore and Wascana. In the end, he sued only the Liberal Party of Canada. If he had taken legal action against the three parliamentarians, however, they would not have been able to continue asking questions about the affair. That is what is deplorable.
In addition, the Liberal member for Ajax—Pickering is being sued for libel by Chris Froggatt, chief of staff of none other than the member for Ottawa West—Nepean and the current Minister of the Environment. The latter is facing allegations of political interference in the Ottawa light rail project, a matter currently being reviewed by a parliamentary committee.
This is a fundamental issue. In this case, the ability to carry out his legislative work must be restored in full to the Acadian member for West Nova, especially since the ethics commissioner pointed out that he acted in good faith.
In view of this situation, we must absolutely ensure that we uphold the fundamental principles making it possible for elected members of the House of Commons to have all means available to them in order to represent their citizens, to carry out their legislative work and to ensure representation within the various components of Parliament—whether committees, sub-committees or even here, in the House—, and with respect to all matters affecting society, with no exceptions. This situation, this reality, this duty that we have must be protected.
In the particular case being debated, there has been a violation of the rights of one of our colleagues—and there is no partisanship in this—and that is unacceptable. There are mechanisms to correct the situation and to ensure, according to today's motion, that our colleague's ability to legislate be restored in full.