Privilege / Reflections on the House

Reflections on the House

Debates p. 3462

Background

Following the report of comments made by Mr. Neil J. McKinnon, Chairman of the Imperial Bank of Commerce, Mr. Mongrain (Trois-Rivieres) sought to raise a question of privilege claiming that those remarks questioned the integrity of the House. Mr. McKinnon was reported to have stated that the Government's spending and monetary policies involved a "massive swindle", which, Mr. Mongrain maintained, "intimates that the entire membership of the House is accessory to this dishonesty". Mr. Mongrain concluded by moving that the Committee on Finance, Trade and Economic Affairs, or any other committee should summon Mr. Neil J. McKinnon and "enjoin him to justify and specify the charges he made against the Government and indirectly against Parliament as a whole". The Speaker ruled immediately.

Issue

Do the remarks, critical of government policy and implicitly of the House, made by a prominent individual, constitute a question of privilege?

Decision

In this case, there is not a question of privilege.

Reasons given by the Speaker

The Member's complaint is a grievance and not a question of privilege. The remarks of the Bank chairman "relate more particularly to the Government than to the personal conduct of Members in the transaction of their business and in their responsibilities in the House".

Sources cited

Beauchesne, 4th ed., pp. 99-100, c. 110.

References

Debates, October 25, 1967, pp. 3461-2.