CANADA VOLUME 137 S NUMBER 039 S 1st SESSION S 37th PARLIAMENT OFFICIAL REPORT (HANSARD) Thursday, March 29, 2001 Speaker: The Honourable Peter Milliken CONTENTS (Table of Contents appears at back of this issue.) All parliamentary publications are available on the ``Parliamentary Internet Parlementaire'' at the following address: http://www.parl.gc.ca 2497 HOUSE OF COMMONS Thursday, March 29, 2001 The House met at 10 a.m. Erskine May describes contempt as: —any act or omission which obstructs or impedes either House of Parliament in the _______________ performance of its functions, or which obstructs or impedes any Member or officer of such House in the discharge of his duty, or which has a tendency, directly or indirectly, to produce such results may be treated as a contempt even though there is Prayers no precedent for the offence. _______________ We do have precedence here. There are news articles, as I have referred to, the Toronto Star, the Hamilton Spectator and the D (1000) London Free Press, detailing the exact contents of the annual report of the Canadian Human Rights Commission. [English] Annual reports to parliament are to remain secret and confiden- CANADIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION tial until tabled in the House of Commons. Other agencies, crown The Speaker: I have the honour to lay upon the table the annual corporations, the auditor general and so on are able to respect this report and the employment equity report of the Canadian Human tenet. Why is it that the Canadian Human Rights Commission Rights Commission for the year 2000. believes that it is above the normal protocols and trashes them instead of respecting them? * * * The member of parliament for Provencher raised a similar point of order on March 14, 2001 at page 1646 of Hansard when he PRIVILEGE argued that his rights as a member of parliament were breached because of the contempt shown by the Minister of Justice to this CANADIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION REPORT House in excluding members of parliament from briefings on a bill Mr. John Williams (St. Albert, Canadian Alliance): Mr. prior to it being tabled in the House. Yet the media had the contents Speaker, I rise on a question of privilege this morning as my rights and substance of the bill published prior to its tabling. as a member of parliament have been abused again. Mr. Speaker, you ruled on March 19, 2001, at page 1839, that the I speak of the annual report of the Canadian Human Rights member for Provencher had a prima facie case of privilege. Today Commission which you just tabled in the House immediately prior we have a repeat of the same situation. The media had the contents to my speaking, but which has been reported extensively in the and substance of the annual report while the members of parlia- press this morning. For example, the Toronto Star and other papers ment are in the dark. have reported it at length. The Canadian Human Rights Commission falls under the pur- This contempt of parliament by this unelected and unaccount- view of the Minister of Justice. able commission and the Minister of Justice is quite obvious. This D is the second time in a month and a half that the commission has (1005 ) leaked one of its reports to the media prior to it being tabled in the While the commission is a quasi-judicial body, it still has to House of Commons. I raised this as a question of privilege on answer to both the minister and to parliament. There is a pattern February 15, 2001 at page 714. here where the minister has contempt for this honourable and When it comes to government doing business, I sometimes have venerable institution. to wonder if this House means anything to it or is it just a superfluous adjunct as it jumps over the heads of this institution to Mr. Speaker, the situation is becoming intolerable. I ask that you communicate directly with Canadian people. find that there is prima facie case of the breach of my privileges. Since you ruled that way so recently, and it was obviously ignored, Mr. Speaker, I ask that you speak out and protect the privileges I ask that you recommend that the Standing Committee on Proce- of this House and its members. dure and House Affairs deal with the matter sternly. 2498 COMMONS DEBATES March 29, 2001 Privilege Hon. Don Boudria (Leader of the Government in the House However, Mr. Speaker, I would suggest that because of the of Commons, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, I agree generally with what the proximity in time, given your ruling, there is an opportunity here to hon. member has said. It is unfortunate, though, that he has chosen bring this matter also before the procedure and house affairs to trivialize such an important issue by somehow alleging that this committee to look at it. has something to do with the government. The government House leader is right. The Minister of Justice is First, the commission reports to parliament. The Speaker just not personally responsible, but this goes to the principles of rose and tabled the report. This has nothing to do with an action of governmental and ministerial responsibility. the government. The Speaker: We have a situation here where a report, which was prepared by an officer of the House of Commons, a person who An action of the government, which I regret, occurred some days reports to the House of Commons directly, has obviously been ago in the House for which instructions were clearly given about a given to the media, based on the information I am hearing in the protocol and giving these kinds of media briefings under embargo, House today. which, as we now know, were not respected by members of the media. The Chair indicated to ministers that these things could only The report stands permanently referred to the justice and human be done if done in a secure way, which I read to be a lockup or some rights committee of the House. It seems to me that the appropriate such thing, but that was a different issue altogether. course in the circumstances is for that committee to undertake its study of the report, as I am sure it will in due course. It is free to Mr. Speaker ruled on the previous item and we accepted the call the head of the commission and anyone else it sees fit to come ruling that he gave of prima facie and it is still before a parliamen- and explain what has happened and the circumstances. It seems to tary committee for further study. me that would be the appropriate course. Should the procedure and House affairs committee, as part of the In the case today, this was not a report that was given for the work it is doing on the question of release of documents that has government to table. This was a report given directly to parliament come to it as a result of my previous ruling, want to look at the and tabled in the House by the Speaker of the House. If someone matter, it is of course free to do so. has breached that, which obviously has happened, then I agree with the hon. member across. I do not object to what he has raised in the sense that it indicates rules were broken. D (1010 ) What I would suggest to the hon. member for St. Albert, the Where I do disagree with the hon. member is on the personal government House leader, the hon. member for Pictou—Antigon- comment he made about the Minister of Justice, alleging that she ish—Guysborough and all hon. members is that we let this go to was personally involved. He should retract his comment as he has the justice and legal affairs committee. If the committee has no proof of that. The hon. member knows that the minister does not concerns about what has happened and feels that something report that document. He knows that the minister is responsible for inappropriate happened, I will allow the hon. member for St. the estimates of that organization. That would be the same as Albert, if he wishes, to bring this matter back to the House. We will alleging that because I am responsible for the estimates of Elec- treat it as a matter of privilege and deal with it at that point. tions Canada, I am somehow responsible for the tabling or non-tabling, or the actions or non-actions of the Chief Electoral Officer, or that somehow the Minister of Justice would be responsi- However, I think that since this is a matter involving an officer of ble for adjudication of the supreme court. That is inappropriate and the House, I do not see that today there has been necessarily a the hon. member knows that. breach of the privileges. The matter can be investigated by a committee. The committee can come back to the House or the member can come back to the House and raise it as a question of While I agree with the principle of what he has raised, the privilege when we have heard the evidence on it. There will be gratuitous accusations against the Minister of Justice and against evidence. This matter is before the committee and making a finding the government are wrong and should be withdrawn. That being today that sends it to the committee again is unhelpful. said, I agree with the point that he has raised about the inappropri- ateness of the commission or anyone who by negligence wilfully I am aware that the procedure and House affairs committee is allows a report to leak out.