I have a couple of points, Mr. Speaker.
First, if comments were made by members of Parliament in this place and not outside of this place, lawsuits could not be brought forward. We are protected by privilege. It is only if we say something outside of this place.
With the whole larger issue of libel chill, I mentioned in my statement that there were legal remedies to prevent that. However, the courts are the best ones to judge what is a frivolous lawsuit as opposed to a real or legitimate lawsuit.
If there is a frivolous lawsuit, just for the purposes of libel chill, that is something I do not agree with, but the courts should be able to determine that. There are many remedies to stop that from happening, and I think the member knows that. Clearly, if there is an instance where a member of Parliament is involved in a lawsuit, the member should not be allowed in this place to speak of issues surrounding that.
How many times have we heard outside of this place, non-members of Parliament, when asked a question, say that the matter is before the courts, therefore they cannot speak to it? That is a standard operating procedure by general citizens, not members of Parliament.
All of a sudden we are saying that if there is a lawsuit, because a person is a member of Parliament, we will exclude that provision and allow the member to speak to it here. It is promoting self-interest, and that is something we have to take very seriously.
The overarching principle of this place is to put public interest ahead of private interest. In this instance, I believe the member for Scarborough—Rouge River thinks he is doing the right thing, because he does not believe the member for West Nova should be disallowed to speak of this issue, but it raises a host of other potential problems. I ask all members to carefully consider the ramifications that could result from the passage of the motion.