Speech (House debate)

{
    "time": "2021-11-23 16:35:00",
    "attribution": {
        "en": "Mr. Blake Richards (Banff\u2014Airdrie, CPC)",
        "fr": "M. Blake Richards (Banff\u2014Airdrie, PCC)"
    },
    "content": {
        "en": "<p data-HoCid=\"6858739\" data-originallang=\"en\">Mr. Speaker, I also rise on a question of privilege. However, as this is my first time rising in this Parliament, I would like to congratulate you on your election as Speaker. I know you will face a number of challenges, as you did in the last Parliament, and that you will handle them with the same tact, grace and dignity that you always have. Congratulations from this side of the House on your continuing role in the chair.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"6858740\" data-originallang=\"en\">I also want to express my appreciation to the voters of Banff\u2014Airdrie for giving me another opportunity to represent them in this place. No matter how many times one is elected to serve, it is always an immense honour.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"6858741\" data-originallang=\"en\">I am rising on a question of privilege that relates to the decision of the Board of Internal Economy that was announced on the evening of October 19. I will quote from that decision:</p>\n<blockquote><p data-HoCid=\"6858742\" data-originallang=\"en\"> Speaker of the House of Commons and Chair of the Board of Internal Economy, reports that the Board has determined that, effective Monday, November 22, 2021, individuals must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 to be allowed within the House of Commons Precinct. This requirement will apply to any person who wishes to enter the House of Commons Precinct, including Members.... </p>\n</blockquote><p data-HoCid=\"6858743\" data-originallang=\"en\">In media comments the following day, I said that the Conservatives could not agree to seven members of Parliament, and I was referring to the non-Conservative members of the board, meeting in secret and deciding which of the 338 members of this House, who had just been elected by Canadians, could enter this chamber to represent their constituents.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"6858744\" data-originallang=\"en\">Members will recall that, once upon a time, the Liberals were boasting about the Board of Internal Economy meetings being open by default and talking about the great transparency they were going to bring to them. Instead, in this case, we ended up with a decision that has very sweeping constitutional implications being made behind closed doors under a very vague agenda heading referring to legal employment matters. Frankly, that could have meant practically anything to anyone who was looking at the board's website.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"6858745\" data-originallang=\"en\">As the board meeting was held in camera, members will appreciate that I will have to be cautious in what I say about those deliberations, but one of the traditions of the board is that it operates on a consensus basis. Votes are, in fact, very rare. I think there have been fewer than a handful of them in the past decade or two.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"6858746\" data-originallang=\"en\">There are a lot of good reasons for consensus decision-making at the board. That model is important there. Not the least of these reasons is that, when a decision is made, every member of the board can then go back to his or her caucus and simply explain the decision without having to betray the in camera discussions that took place.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"6858747\" data-originallang=\"en\">I will say that the opposition House leader and I abstained from the vote on that board decision, given that we believed that the board lacked the jurisdiction to limit members' access to parliamentary proceedings. I am challenging that lack of jurisdiction here today by way of this question of privilege\u2014</p>",
        "fr": "<p data-HoCid=\"6858739\" data-originallang=\"en\">Monsieur le Pr\u00e9sident, je prends moi aussi la parole pour soulever une question de privil\u00e8ge. Cependant, comme il s'agit de ma premi\u00e8re intervention de la pr\u00e9sente l\u00e9gislature, j'aimerais vous f\u00e9liciter de votre \u00e9lection \u00e0 la pr\u00e9sidence. Je sais que vous serez appel\u00e9 \u00e0 faire face \u00e0 de nombreuses difficult\u00e9s, comme ce fut le cas pendant la l\u00e9gislature pr\u00e9c\u00e9dente, et suis convaincu que vous les g\u00e9rerez avec le m\u00eame tact, la m\u00eame gr\u00e2ce et la m\u00eame dignit\u00e9 que vous l'avez toujours fait. Au nom de l'opposition, je vous f\u00e9licite de votre r\u00e9\u00e9lection \u00e0 la pr\u00e9sidence.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"6858740\" data-originallang=\"en\">J'aimerais \u00e9galement exprimer ma reconnaissance aux \u00e9lecteurs de Banff\u2014Airdrie de m'avoir donn\u00e9 \u00e0 nouveau l'occasion de les repr\u00e9senter dans cette enceinte. Quel que soit le nombre de mandats, c'est toujours un immense honneur d'\u00eatre au service de la population.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"6858741\" data-originallang=\"en\">Je prends la parole pour soulever une question de privil\u00e8ge concernant la d\u00e9cision prise par le Bureau de r\u00e9gie interne et annonc\u00e9e le soir du 19 octobre dernier. Je la cite:</p>\n<blockquote><p data-HoCid=\"6858742\" data-originallang=\"en\"> [...] Pr\u00e9sident de la Chambre des communes et pr\u00e9sident du Bureau de r\u00e9gie interne, confirme que le Bureau a d\u00e9termin\u00e9 que, \u00e0 compter du lundi 22 novembre 2021, toute personne doit \u00eatre enti\u00e8rement vaccin\u00e9e contre la COVID\u201119 pour \u00eatre autoris\u00e9e \u00e0 entrer dans les lieux de la Chambre des communes. Cette exigence s\u2019appliquera \u00e0 toute personne souhaitant entrer dans les lieux de la Chambre des communes, y compris les d\u00e9put\u00e9s... </p>\n</blockquote><p data-HoCid=\"6858743\" data-originallang=\"en\">Le lendemain, dans les m\u00e9dias, j'ai dit que les conservateurs ne pouvaient pas accepter que sept d\u00e9put\u00e9s \u2014 je parlais des d\u00e9put\u00e9s membres du Bureau de r\u00e9gie interne qui n'appartiennent pas au caucus conservateur \u2014, se r\u00e9unissent en secret et d\u00e9cident qui, parmi les 338 d\u00e9put\u00e9s qui venaient tout juste d'\u00eatre \u00e9lus, pouvait entrer \u00e0 la Chambre pour repr\u00e9senter les habitants de sa circonscription.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"6858744\" data-originallang=\"en\">On se souviendra qu'\u00e0 une certaine \u00e9poque, les lib\u00e9raux se vantaient que les r\u00e9unions du Bureau de r\u00e9gie interne \u00e9taient ouvertes par d\u00e9faut. Ils parlaient de la grande transparence qu'ils allaient y instaurer. Au lieu de cela, nous nous retrouvons ici avec une d\u00e9cision aux vastes ramifications constitutionnelles qui a \u00e9t\u00e9 prise derri\u00e8re des portes closes sous un point tr\u00e8s vague \u00e0 l'ordre du jour au sujet de questions juridiques relatives \u00e0 l'emploi. \u00c0 vrai dire, pour quiconque aurait consult\u00e9 le site Web du Bureau de la r\u00e9gie interne, ce point aurait pu signifier \u00e0 peu pr\u00e8s n'importe quoi.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"6858745\" data-originallang=\"en\">\u00c9tant donn\u00e9 que la r\u00e9union a eu lieu \u00e0 huis clos, les d\u00e9put\u00e9s comprendront que je dois prendre garde \u00e0 ce que je dis au sujet de ces d\u00e9lib\u00e9rations, cependant, une des habitudes du Bureau de la r\u00e9gie interne consiste \u00e0 fonctionner par voie de consensus. En fait, il est tr\u00e8s rare qu'on y tienne un vote. Je crois que cela s'est produit \u00e0 quelques reprises seulement au cours des 10 ou 20 derni\u00e8res ann\u00e9es.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"6858746\" data-originallang=\"en\">Il existe beaucoup de bonnes raisons pour justifier le processus de d\u00e9cisions par consensus qui est important aux yeux du Bureau de la r\u00e9gie interne. Une de ces raisons, et non la moindre, est que lorsqu\u2019une d\u00e9cision est prise, chaque membre du comit\u00e9 peut revenir dans son caucus pour expliquer simplement la d\u00e9cision sans avoir \u00e0 r\u00e9v\u00e9ler les propos tenus \u00e0 huis clos.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"6858747\" data-originallang=\"en\">Je peux dire que le leader de l\u2019opposition \u00e0 la Chambre et moi-m\u00eame nous sommes abstenus de voter, car il nous semble que le Bureau de la r\u00e9gie interne n\u2019est pas comp\u00e9tent pour d\u00e9cider de limiter l\u2019acc\u00e8s des d\u00e9put\u00e9s aux d\u00e9lib\u00e9rations parlementaires. Je veux donc aborder cette absence de comp\u00e9tence sous la forme d\u2019une question de privil\u00e8ge...</p>"
    },
    "url": "/debates/2021/11/23/blake-richards-4/",
    "politician_url": "/politicians/blake-richards/",
    "politician_membership_url": "/politicians/memberships/4254/",
    "procedural": false,
    "source_id": "11427086",
    "h1": {
        "en": "Speech from the Throne",
        "fr": "Le discours du Tr\u00f4ne"
    },
    "h2": {
        "en": "Privilege",
        "fr": "Privil\u00e8ge"
    },
    "h3": {
        "en": "Access by Members to the House of Commons Precinct",
        "fr": "L'acc\u00e8s des d\u00e9put\u00e9s \u00e0 la Cit\u00e9 parlementaire"
    },
    "document_url": "/debates/2021/11/23/",
    "related": {
        "document_speeches_url": "/speeches/?document=%2Fdebates%2F2021%2F11%2F23%2F"
    }
}