Procedure and House Affairs committee  Frankly speaking—perhaps I'm just getting old or have too much of a pessimistic nature, with the glass always being half empty, in my view—I think that even with an amalgamated force you might run into this kind of thing. It's certainly not in any way malicious or systemic; it's

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Ah, bless you, Mr. Chairman.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Mr. Chair, I would first like to thank the committee for inviting us. I just want to say that it's an issue that has arisen before. It's one we're familiar with—all too familiar with. Though we try to make sure these incidents don't repeat themselves, human nature being what it

Procedure and House Affairs committee  There have been, of course, various suggestions made through many years about the amalgamation of security forces and so forth. I think that is a very ambitious plan, which might eventually bear fruit. Frankly speaking, though, I think the number of these incidents—though as yo

Canadian Heritage committee  It's interesting that you would mention that event because I think the event took place at 2:30, and it was 1:45 when Speaker Milliken came into my office with the government House leader to say that there had been a change in plans and they wanted the representatives of the firs

Canadian Heritage committee  When you say “do we”, who is this “we” of which you speak?

Canadian Heritage committee  Right. My own feeling is that regardless of who would be in control of the building, somebody would be upset at some point. It's just the nature of the beast. I think that, generally speaking, parliamentarians and Canadians are well served by the protocol at Public Works. As for

Canadian Heritage committee  Right. In terms of the security forces, if you trace it right back to its root, we have the fact that it's a bicameral Parliament, and that is the source of many of the reasons that there's a bifurcation. With regard to policing, the bodyguard for the Prime Minister is a securit

Canadian Heritage committee  When I say it's more art than science and then say it would be kind of nice to have guidelines down, part of that is basically trying to ensure a transfer of knowledge from veterans and a documentation of precedents in what is here. Parliament, understandably enough, is very ofte

Canadian Heritage committee  Absolutely, yes; there you go.

Canadian Heritage committee  If you have members, for example, who are participating in an Inter-Parliamentary Union conference, depending where the conference is held they'll be familiar with how the conference takes place, how the IPU handles it, and then there will be elements of the host country that wil

Canadian Heritage committee  Sometimes what happens is, if you have a very different kind of political system—you'll have, for example, the Speaker in some of the other legislatures that we visit, who.... For instance, this is the case in the United States of America, where the Speaker plays such a key role

Canadian Heritage committee  As one very good example, I think, of the ways in which we are better off celebrating our own traditions and our own way of doing things, I'll refer to a group that hasn't been meeting for that long—I guess it has been 10 years now. That's the G-8 Speakers of the lower houses. Ot

Canadian Heritage committee  Ordinarily, there might be a recognition. Certainly, we do that for ministers who are more commonly visiting, and in the gallery, but the premier might be as well. Obviously, if he or she were in the House for question period, then there would be recognition afterwards.

Canadian Heritage committee  It's more like a visit from family.