Mr. Speaker, I would like the opportunity to make a brief intervention having heard from several of my colleagues across the floor.
Let me point out once again that the question before us is one of purported privilege. I would suggest quite strongly that there is nothing of the sort occurring. What we are hearing about is a member, quite frankly, whose feelings were hurt because members from the government side pointed out the fact that on a number of occasions he factually left Cancun and the latest environment summit. That seemed to hurt his feelings and he is raising a question of privilege to try to make comments that the government is somehow infringing upon his abilities to do his duty.
I would point out, particularly in response to the last intervention on the opposition side, that attacks from opposition members on government ministers happen regularly, not infrequently but regularly. When the member opposite says these are not personal in nature, I would point out one of many examples that happened recently.
For the record, when the member for Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Lachine called the Minister of National Defence a “slime” in her questions, she was forced to apologize by the Speaker and in her apology she used the term “slime” on several other occasions. This is a matter of decorum, not a matter of privilege.