HANSARD: What happened to caregivers' PR on arrival promised by the government?
Madam Speaker, all I can say to the official—
HANSARD: Alleged Intimidation during Proceedings of the House
Debates of Dec. 3rd, 2024
House of Commons Hansard #381 of the 44th Parliament, 1st Session
Alleged Intimidation during
Proceedings of the House
PrivilegeRoutine Proceedings
1:20 p.m.
Peter Julian New Westminster—Burnaby, BC
NDP
Some hon. members
Oh, oh!
The Assistant Deputy Speaker Carol Hughes
NDP
Order. This is exactly what we have been seeing over and over again when someone else has the floor.
The hon. member rose to speak on the question of privilege. I told him he had to wait until the previous speaker was done. I would ask members to please be respectful. Let us hear what the hon. member has to say so we can go on with the business of the day.
The hon. member for New Westminster—Burnaby.
Peter Julian New Westminster—Burnaby, BC
NDP
Madam Speaker, I was going to say that my colleague and friend has a great future as a fiction writer ahead of him once he retires from politics. He did not address the question of privilege—
Some hon. members
Oh, oh!
The Assistant Deputy Speaker Carol Hughes
NDP
Members have indicated falsehoods and that sort of thing. I would hope that all members are providing feedback, as they see it, but not implicating others. It is incumbent upon members in this House to be respectful of each other. They can put forward views of what may have transpired and the decision will be made by the Speaker.
At this point in time, I am going to allow the hon. member for New Westminster—Burnaby to provide any other information he wishes to add to the question of privilege now before the House. Any other debate will be put aside until it is decided whether the question of privilege is a prima facie case.
The hon. member for New Westminster—Burnaby.
Peter Julian New Westminster—Burnaby, BC
NDP
Madam Speaker, I have three points to make.
First, the official opposition House leader rose on a point of order. He did not address the question of privilege. I think that is very relevant to the considerations of the Speaker.
Second, the Speaker apologized for his failure to recognize the member for London—Fanshawe, which is important. The official opposition House leader knows this, and that error and omission is part of his torquing of this question of privilege.
Third and finally, I am glad that Conservatives have finally recognized that the pages had to withdraw from the opposition lobby for safety reasons. That acknowledgement is important for the Speaker to consider on this question of privilege moving forward.
I will not take any more time and I certainly will not get into debate. I thank the Speaker for a full consideration of this question of privilege.
Michelle Ferreri Peterborough—Kawartha, ON
Conservative
Madam Speaker, while my hon. colleague was speaking about the very thing that I too witnessed on Thursday while voting, which was the member for London—Fanshawe storming through this House and aggressively accosting many of the members, in the lobby, the member for London—Fanshawe just made a knifing motion toward Conservative staff, like she was going to knife us. I just wanted to—
The Assistant Deputy Speaker Carol Hughes
NDP
The Speaker generally does not rule on what happens in the lobbies, and there are better ways to address those issues. As I indicated, it is best just to bring forward the issues that happened in the House of Commons, and then we will be able to better determine whether or not a prima facie case has been made.
The hon. member for Vancouver East is rising on the same question of privilege.
Jenny Kwan Vancouver East, BC
NDP
Madam Speaker, I am compelled to rise to share this additional information with you. With respect to the day of the vote, what happened was that my colleague, the member for London—Fanshawe, walked up to the Speaker to register her concern for not being recognized and not being able to do her job because of the jeering and the loud noises that were coming from the Conservatives side.
This was orchestrated and premeditated to violate the rules of the House so that NDP members, when they got up to vote, could not hear their names being called. I could not hear my name being called or whether my vote has been registered. I know that was also the case for my NDP colleagues who were in the House that same day. As a result, my colleague, the member for London—Fanshawe, was not able to do her job.
Afterwards, in reference to the filming that occurred, it is true that there were, in total, five members in the House on the NDP side, and some of us did walk up to support my colleague, the member for London—Fanshawe. We walked up there to support her because there were over a hundred Conservative members on that side jeering at her, calling her pathetic and shaming her.
As we were sitting here watching this, we thought we should go and stand with her. Yes, I did make a comment about the Conservatives deliberately violating the rules of the House concerning the standing order because they were instructed by their whip staff to interrupt the proceedings of the House during the voting process when the NDP members got up to vote. This is the sum of what had occurred—
An hon. member
Oh, oh!
The Assistant Deputy Speaker Carol Hughes
NDP
Excuse me, the hon. member does not have the floor. He should be very respectful in the House and allow others to speak.
This is becoming additional information during a debate—
An hon. member
Oh, oh!
The Assistant Deputy Speaker Carol Hughes
NDP
Excuse me, but if the hon. member does not want to respect what the Chair has ordered, then I would ask him to step out.
I will ask the hon. member for Vancouver East to wrap it up because, from what I can gather, this is additional information.
Concerning the hon. member, I appreciate that he has stepped out. It looks like he is having a hard time controlling himself.
The hon. member for Vancouver East has the floor.
Jenny Kwan Vancouver East, BC
NDP
Madam Speaker, the member who just walked out of the House, the member you asked to respect the rules of the House, just made a gesture towards me in a threatening way. I want to note that so it is on the record.
I will just close with what happened on that night. When I was in the lobby, I thought the lobby smelled like a brewery. That is a fact. I hope the truth will prevail because I know there is a lot of spinning and twisting of the facts going on. As is always the case, the bullies always use an aggressive offence as a defence, and that is what we are seeing from the Conservative side.
The Assistant Deputy Speaker Carol Hughes
NDP
I appreciate all of the interventions. Some of the testimonials provided for this question of privilege were more in the area of debate. I thank members for their additional information. We will take this into consideration as the deliberation is being made.
