Privilege / Deceiving the House

Deceiving the House

Journals p. 923

Debates p. 9619

Background

When the House met, Mr. Lewis (York South) rose on a question of privilege to claim that Mr. Sharp (Acting Prime Minister) had "misled this House and the people of Canada yesterday by statements in the House and by a statement he made outside the House" respecting the Government's policy decision on foreign ownership. According to Mr. Lewis, Mr. Sharp, answering questions put to him by Members, had deliberately created the impression that no decision on the issue had been made. Nonetheless, the Montreal Gazette published what was purported to be a cabinet document indicating that the Government had agreed to establish a foreign ownership screening mechanism during the past summer. Mr. Lewis proposed to move that the discrepancies between these two accounts be referred to the Standing Committee on Privileges and Elections. The Speaker deferred his decision until later that day in order to have an opportunity to examine any pertinent precedents.

Issue

Can the apparent discrepancies between statements of a Minister made to the House and the contents of a document published in a newspaper constitute a breach of privilege?

Decision

There is no prima facie case of privilege. The issue raised is more a matter of debate than of privilege.

Reasons given by the Speaker

The precedents "tend to establish in the main that statements made outside the House, or documents published elsewhere, ought not to be used for the purpose of questioning statements made in this Chamber ... A dispute arising between two Members as to allegations of fact does not fulfil the condition of parliamentary privilege."

Sources cited

Debates, February 14, 1938, pp. 382-3; December 21, 1951, p. 2346; July 3, 1952, p. 4162.

Beauchesne, 4th ed., p. 102, c. 113.

References

Debates, November 16, 1971, pp. 9593-4.