Mr. Speaker, last evening during the taking of various divisions the chief government whip proposed during the division on Bill C-103 that the vote on Motion No. 19 of Bill C-61 be applied to the motion that was then before the House.
This is verified by a review of the video from last night's proceedings. However this reality is not reflected in Hansard , as recorded on page 16056 where it shows the government whip applying the vote in reverse.
The video also shows that it was you, Mr. Speaker, who following the House's decision later sought clarification from the chief government whip, although this fact is also missing from Hansard .
My first concern is that Hansard , the official report of the proceedings of the House of Commons, does not reflect the realities of last night's proceedings. While it is true that members are permitted to make slight corrections to Hansard such as grammatical corrections, this type of alteration completely reverses the intent of what the chief government whip clearly stated, which has been verified by a review of the video.
My second point is that unanimous consent was sought to apply the result of report stage Motion No. 19 to the concurrence motion at report stage of Bill C-103. This was, in fact, agreed to by the House as verified on the video.
It was only later that you, Mr. Speaker, noticed the government had applied a vote which resulted in the defeat of Bill C-103 and then asked the government whip if he had meant to apply the vote in reverse. You asked him yes or no.
It is my contention that the House had clearly given its unanimous consent to apply the vote as first specified by the chief government whip. If this was to be changed, it was incumbent upon the Speaker to ask the entire House for its unanimous consent, and not simply engage in a personal dialogue with the chief government whip. If you review the video, Mr. Speaker, you will find the evidence to support my submission.
In summation, I would first like to say how disturbing it is to see that the official record of Parliament does not reflect the reality of last night's proceedings. Second, the video clearly shows that the House gave its unanimous consent to apply a vote which resulted in the defeat of a government bill. If it was a mistake on the part of the chief government whip and he wanted to reverse the decision of this House, then he ought to have sought its consent and not simply told you, Mr. Speaker, what he meant to have said, if it was only that easy.
It is not that easy and it is dangerous to engage in such practices. My reason for raising this point of order is that the most important protection that we as members of the opposition have in this House is you, Mr. Speaker, and the rules of the House.
