44th Parl. 1st Sess.

May 3, 2024 10:00AM

May/3/24 10:02:34 a.m.
Watch

I am now ready to rule on the question of privilege raised on April 8 by the member for Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola, concerning the response to Question No. 1425. Members will recall that the Speaker, having signed off on the response to this question in his previous capacity as parliamentary secretary, recused himself and requested that I rule on this matter. In his intervention, the member for Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola alleged that the response to his written question was contradicted by evidence given on April 5 by an official of the Privy Council Office to the public inquiry into foreign interference in the federal electoral process and democratic institutions. The member disputed the response received to Question No. 1425, tabled on June 8, 2023, which indicated the Privy Council Office had not made any requests to social media companies to remove, edit or alter information in the media. The member claimed that providing misleading responses to written questions impeded members' ability to hold the government to account. He was supported in his claim by the member for Lethbridge, who argued that a similarly misleading response was provided to her written question, Question No. 1445. The Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons rejected the claim that the responses to the written questions were untrue or deliberately misleading, indicating that the government continued to stand by its responses. He emphasized that the Privy Council Office had not initiated the removal of an article from a social media platform. According to the parliamentary secretary, the article in question was flagged to the Privy Council Office by Facebook as violating its own community standards. On that basis, the article was taken down on the initiative of Facebook. The parliamentary secretary therefore characterized the dispute as a matter of debate. Furthermore, he held that, consistent with prior precedents, the Speaker is not empowered to assess the quality of responses to written questions on the Order Paper. To sum up, the members for Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola and Lethbridge argued that the responses were inaccurate, whereas the parliamentary secretary stated that they were not. In House of Commons Procedure and Practice, third edition, at page 529, a frequently used citation is referenced in decisions from the Chair with respect to members’ complaints about responses to written questions, which states: There are no provisions in the rules for the Speaker to review government responses to questions. Nonetheless, on several occasions, Members have raised questions of privilege in the House regarding the accuracy of information contained in responses to written questions; in none of these cases was the matter found to be a prima facie breach of privilege. Speaker Regan, in addressing a similar complaint on September 27, 2016, which can be found at page 5175 of the debates, put it succinctly, in stating, and I quote: It has been long established and accepted that the role of the Speaker in such circumstances is tightly prescribed and limited. I repeat these words because the Chair does not have the discretion to become some sort of arbiter as to the quality or accuracy of responses to written questions. As such, I cannot find a prima facie question of privilege. However, as noted by many other Chair occupants, given the repeated complaints of members, it would perhaps be beneficial to re-evaluate the rules and processes surrounding responses to Order Paper questions. This being underlined, the Chair notes that, in 2004, the Auditor General was asked to review the process as it was at the time, and the Auditor General provided a certain number of recommendations to the government. It may be time to undertake a similar exercise to ensure that members can obtain the information that we require to do our jobs. I am sure we can all agree, as parliamentarians, that members are right to expect the government to answer questions in as fulsome a manner as possible. I thank all members for their attention.

673 words

Hear!
Rabble!
add
star_border
share

SoVote

House Hansard - 308