Fair Elections Act  Mr. Speaker, I can confirm that the Chief Electoral Officer can refer cases, or things that he thinks should be investigated, to the commissioner, and the commissioner would have more power and more opportunities to investigate and charge individuals who violate the act.

Fair Elections Act  Mr. Speaker, the member mentioned that the Chief Electoral Officer was just following the rules. Yesterday, the Chief Electoral Officer appeared at the procedure and House affairs committee and was asked by the member for Winnipeg North on a number of occasions how many times he had had to send a letter to the Speaker requesting that the House not allow a member to sit or vote.

Fair Elections Act  Mr. Speaker, the Chief Electoral Officer is not the referee but the scorekeeper. The referee is the commissioner. Let us make sure that we get the game straight: the scorekeeper should not be interceding in these affairs. Yes, I do feel like I was bullied and intimidated. On page 113 of O'Brien and Bosc, Speaker Bosley is cited as saying: The intimidation by government officials of Members and their staff in carrying out their parliamentary functions has been considered a prima facie breach of privilege.

Fair Elections Act  Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to be able to stand and address the House today on the fair elections act. I want to inform the House that there are a lot of great things in the fair elections act. All of us have been talking about the need to crack down on rogue callers, impersonations, and people who have committed fraud, and we want to make sure those things are cleared up.

Manitoba's Olympic Athletes  Mr. Speaker, the opening ceremonies have just started in Sochi, and I want to acknowledge some remarkable Manitobans who will be going for gold in these 22nd Winter Olympic Games. Megan Imrie of Falcon Lake will complete in the biathlon event. Brittany Schussler will give it her all in long track speed skating.

Questions on the Order Paper  Mr. Speaker, I ask that all question be allowed to stand.

Grain Transport  Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Agriculture for his comments. I also want to thank the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food for the work he has done on this file. There is no question that we have some major challenges. In my riding of Selkirk—Interlake in Manitoba, we are facing a backlog.

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the member for her presentation. I also want to thank her for the work she does on the Standing Committee on National Defence. I would like her to talk a bit about the importance of CSEC from the standpoint of national security. A couple of years ago, the committee was looking at potential threats to Canada.

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, I am a little concerned that by having this debate on CSEC and CSIS, we are increasing the level of concern among Canadians. We have to remind members that the Communications Security Establishment Canada targets all of its activities for the protection of Canada.

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, the member refers to a former committee that involved some members from this side of the House going back to 2004. At that time, the Liberal Party was in power and it ignored that recommendation. Now Liberals are claiming that they are on the side of openness and transparency and that they are going to come forward with having more parliamentary oversight.

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, I want to make an observation. The member asks why the government would not do this. The Liberal party was in government when it authorized the collection and analysis of metadata through a ministerial directive. It was the Liberals who did that. The member for Malpeque, who moved this motion, is a former solicitor general.

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, I want again to remind everyone that we should not be fearmongering and getting Canadians worried that their privacy is at risk. Communications Security Establishment Canada, CSEC, only targets its activities on non-Canadians and abroad. It is trying to protect our border.

Business of Supply  It is about protecting our forces, Canada, and protecting us from cyber-security attacks and terrorism. I just want the member to recognize that.

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, the whole Liberal mantra that we are hearing today is based upon false allegations, speculation, and innuendo. That is no basis for forming the oversight committee the Liberal members are proposing. We heard right from the get go from the commissioner, who said that the Communications Security Establishment Canada has a culture of protecting privacy and is respecting the laws of Canada, including the Privacy Act, the Criminal Code, and the charter, in everything it does.

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, with all due to respect to my colleague from Vancouver Quadra, to suggest that the independent commissioner of the Communications Security Establishment is not qualified or not capable of carrying out his mandate is insulting. That individual is a supernumerary justice who has the skill, the ability, and the top-level security clearance to do the job of evaluating the activities of the Communications Security Establishment of Canada and to ensure that CSEC is operating within its mandate.