Privilege / Miscellaneous

Miscellaneous

Journals pp. 537-9

Debates pp, 6308-9

Background

At the beginning of the sitting, Mr. Nielsen (Yukon) rose on a question of privilege to charge that the interview given by Mr. Allmand (Solicitor General) on the subject of the police visit and interrogation of the staff of Miss MacDonald (Kingston and the Islands) constituted a contempt of Parliament. He claimed that the Minister's statement, which was made outside the House, violated an order of the House that the matter be investigated by the Standing Committee on· Privileges and Elections. Asserting that any comment prior to the committee's report was a breach of the House order, Mr. Nielsen proposed to move a motion of censure regarding the conduct of the Solicitor General. The Speaker allowed comments from Mr. Allmand, since his actions had been impugned, and from Miss MacDonald. He deferred his decision until later that day, after studying the case presented by Mr. Nielsen.

Issue

Do statements made by a Member outside the House about matters currently under investigation by a committee constitute a prima facie case of privilege and a contempt of Parliament?

Decision

"On the basis of the motion itself ... there is no prima facie case of privilege."

Reasons given by the Speaker

The motion asks the House to censure a Member for a statement made outside the House; the purport of such a motion does not allow the Speaker to find a prima facie case of privilege. "It is a well-known rule that Members ought not to comment in the House about proceedings in a committee until such committee has reported to the House. This cannot possibly apply to statements made outside the House." There is no precedent to support the suggestion that the action of the House in ordering a matter to be considered by the committee is also a prohibition on any comments about it, except in committee.

Sources cited

Journals, May 22, 1924, p. 299.

Debates, June 5, 1964, p. 3971.

Beauchesne, 4th ed., [U.K. Select Committee Report on the Official Secrets Act and Freedom of Speech (of Members of Parliament)], p. 429, para. 24.

Bourinot, 4th ed., p. 474.

May, 17th ed., p. 119; 18th ed., p. 132.

Eric Taylor, The House of Commons at Work, 7th ed., (London, 1967), pp. 68-9.

References

Debates, September 6, 1973, pp. 6277-80.