Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order in relation to a statement made by the member for Portage—Lisgar, which in turn related to your ruling on finding a prima facie breach of privilege with respect to the misleading flyer that had been sent to my constituency and others, and which statement made in question period warrants a correction for the parliamentary record and the facts.
The member for Portage—Lisgar said that the Liberal Party and the member for Mount Royal misled this House in stating that the Israeli government had asked the Canadian government to stay in Durban. The member for Portage--Lisgar went on to quote Alan Baker, whom she claimed headed the Israeli delegation in Durban, and that he had asked the Canadian government to leave.
For the record, the facts are as follows:
First, Mr. Baker did not head the Israeli delegation at Durban. The person who headed the delegation was Rabbi Michael Melchior, then a deputy foreign minister of Israel, who publicly commended the Canadian government for staying in Durban to combat the anti-Semitism there. That is a matter of public record and that can be verified.
Second, the member for Vancouver Centre, who headed the Canadian delegation, has said that she was never contacted by Mr. Baker and never was asked to leave Durban.
Third, the final thing and the important point here is that the Canadian delegation at Durban, of which I was a member, made its own independent decision to stay and not to leave for the following reasons.
We did not willingly participate, as the member for Portage—Lisgar implied today, in the anti-Semitic Durban. We stayed willingly to combat the anti-Semitism in Durban. This was publicly commended by the Israeli government.
I also want to add again for the record, as I stated in my submissions, because it keeps getting misrepresented, we were not only asked by the Israeli government to remain, but we were asked by other governments and NGOs to remain, including Canadian NGOs at Durban.
Therefore, I would ask the member for Portage—Lisgar to publicly apologize to the House--