Mr. Speaker, on this point of privilege, I have several points to make for your consideration in response to some of the items just raised by my colleague from the NDP.
First of all, she stated that she was not afforded the right to intervene. I was here. What I saw happen was that the Speaker saw the government House leader, who adjourned debate. The Speaker chose to adjourn debate and debate was adjourned. Let us start with that. From what I saw, the Speaker followed procedure in that point. Now, if my colleague had wanted to tell the Speaker there was an issue, she had plenty of time to send a page over or talk to somebody and say, “Hey, we would like to have a point of order.” From what I saw, that did not happen. I do believe procedure was followed last evening.
Second of all, as you are considering this point of privilege, Mr. Speaker, there is a bit of the story that was not told. My colleague was talking about harassment. What I watched unfold after the House was adjourned was that my colleague who has just raised the point of privilege walked very aggressively and assertively toward the Speaker's chair and took a very aggressive posture at the chair. Another one of her colleagues followed. Then she and two of her colleagues approached, in a very aggressive posture, two of my colleagues who were seated. There is video evidence of this, which was legally obtained because the House was adjourned. We are prepared to share that, post that or table it with the Speaker.
What I saw, since my colleague raised harassment, was three NDP members standing with a very aggressive posture, almost with hands in the faces of my colleagues, who then had to de-escalate the situation. Mr. Speaker, if you are going to consider harassment in this case, then you also must consider what happened after the House adjourned with the member who just raised this. It was completely inappropriate.
I also want to say that this colleague was feted in The Hill Times for raising a pledge on decorum and asking parliamentarians to take the heat down. In that situation, she had the ability to show leadership, but instead, what we saw was an aggressive march up to the Speaker's chair. We could see the body language of the Speaker kind of holding back and then NDP members stood over two of my colleagues in a highly aggressive, highly conflated way. Please take that into consideration, Mr. Speaker.
Third, I fundamentally disagree with the characterization of what happened in the House last night. The reality is that there were, I believe, close to 100 members of my caucus, the Conservative Party, who changed their travel plans to stay here to express the displeasure of their constituents, many of them small business owners, who understand that what we were voting on last night is going to have a detrimental impact on their small businesses. Many of our constituents vehemently oppose what the government did last night.
If my colleague wanted to bring the light and not the heat in this point of privilege, she would not have ascribed a motive to us at the end. I want you to note, Mr. Speaker, that she closed her point of privilege with a very partisan remark: that Conservatives were only here to harass and intimidate because we “had a bad week”, because we were voting against an atrociously bad policy that, as the government has heard, has been derided by virtually every group of every political stripe as an act of desperation. The fact that she, in her point of privilege, closed with a partisan argument in and of itself belies that this is a point of privilege at all.
What I saw last night, which you need to consider, Mr. Speaker, is that there were 100 members of the Conservative caucus here who were standing in force, in terms of standing up for our constituents. Our expressing the frustration that people across the country are feeling right now should not be allowed to be whitewashed by a member saying her feelings were hurt. That is a breach of my privilege and my ability to stand here in this place.
I have a lot of respect for all colleagues in this place. I try to—