I am now prepared to rule on the question of privilege raised on April 10, 2014, by the House leader of the official opposition regarding alleged misleading statements made by the Minister of State for Democratic Reform during oral questions.
I would like to thank the House leader of the official opposition for raising this matter, as well as the Minister of State for Democratic Reform, the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons and the member for Saanich—Gulf Islands for their comments.
The House leader of the official opposition claimed that the Minister of State for Democratic Reform had deliberately misled the House when, in providing answers during question period on April 2, 2014, with respect to why voter information cards were being removed as possible forms of identification for voters, he stated that, “There are regular reports of people receiving multiple cards and using them to vote multiple times”. The House leader of the official opposition alleged that this was an answer based on reports that the minister of state knew made no such claim as evidenced by the minister altering his response the following day when he spoke only of “[...] cases where people received multiple voter information cards”. This, argued the opposition House leader, constituted ample proof that the minister of state offered misleading statements to the House knowingly and with the intent to mislead members.
The Minister of State for Democratic Reform countered those allegations, citing examples from the Elections Canada website of voters having received multiple voter information cards and voting multiple times. These he offered as proof of the accuracy of his original comments.
In raising this issue, the House leader of the official opposition has again asked the Chair to determine the degree of accuracy or truthfulness of an answer to see if, on the face of it, it constitutes an instance in which the House was misled.
Members must recognize that there are limits as to what the Chair is authorized to do in this respect. As I reminded the House as recently as January 28, 2014, at page 2204 of Debates:
Successive speakers in our House have maintained our tradition of not intervening in respect of answers to questions, and I do not intend to change that.
As Speaker Milliken stated on December 6, 2004, at page 2319 of the House of Commons Debates:
Disagreements about facts and how the facts should be interpreted form the basis of debate in this place.
Thus, it is not sufficient for members to simply make allegations based on their perceptions of what is or is not factually correct. Members must recognize and accept the existence of differences of fact and interpretation, which have always been a part of the normal cut and thrust of debate and question period.
As Speaker Jerome put it so well on June 4, 1975, at page 6431 of Debates:
...a dispute as to facts, a dispute as to opinions and a dispute as to conclusions to be drawn from an allegation of fact is a matter of debate and not a question of privilege.
House of Commons Procedure and Practice, second edition, at page 145, goes further when it recognizes that:
In the vast majority of cases, the Chair decides that a prima facie case of privilege has not been made.
Given this last citation, the Chair finds itself in the position of having to point out to the House leader of the official opposition that in citing certain cases as precedents, he may have left an erroneous impression about the frequency of such incidents. In fact, most if not all of the precedents referred to were simply disputes as to fact, as is overwhelmingly the case.
The Chair has carefully considered the current case and the usual wisdom prevails here as well. There is no evidence to suggest that this situation is anything more than a dispute as to facts or that the opposition House leader has in any way been impeded in the performance of his duties as a parliamentarian.
Thus, I cannot conclude that this qualifies as a prima facie question of privilege.
I thank honourable members for their attention.