Mr. Speaker, there is a longstanding rule that during speeches, members may not allude to the presence or absence of another member or minister in the House. This rule can be found on page 614 of O'Brien and Bosc.
I would like to call your attention to a situation that has been troubling me a great deal for the past few days. It has been brought to my attention that on several occasions, namely, on March 11, 12, 18 and 19, 2010, the member for Ottawa—Orléans used the social networking site Twitter to report the exact number of members of each party present in the House, even mentioning the names of some members who were absent or present.
There is another longstanding rule that we cannot do indirectly what is not allowed directly. If a member is not allowed to make comments on the presence or absence of members in the House during speeches, this rule should also apply to new technology. In other words, when members are sitting in the House and therefore have access to privileged information, they should not be allowed to share that information outside the House.
I would therefore seek the unanimous consent of the House to table a copy of the comments published by the member for Ottawa—Orléans. I find this situation even more appalling considering the fact that the member for Ottawa—Orléans was once an occupant of the chair and, as such, he is very familiar with this rule.
Accordingly, Mr. Speaker, I would like you to rule on this matter and call the member to order.