Privilege / Premature Disclosure of Committee Proceedings

Premature disclosure of committee proceedings

Journals pp. 1209-10

Debates pp. 7046-7

Background

On May 6, Mrs. Holt (Vancouver—Kingsway) rose on a question of privilege regarding the premature publication of in camera proceedings of the Penitentiary Subcommittee.

Issue

Are the privileges of the House offended when the proceedings of an in camera committee are published at large before they have been made available to the Members?

Decision

The matter should be set aside until certain problems have been cleared up by the Special Committee of the House on Rights and Immunities.

Reasons given by the Speaker

The premature publication of this document interferes with the work of the Members in their committee because it "prejudices the secure identity of witnesses and people who co-operated with the committee. It prejudiced in that way probably the work of future committees, with respect to the kind of co-operation we hope our House of Commons committees will secure."

Before treating the premature publication of documents as an absolute question of privilege in every case, it would be more suitable to refer the matter to the Special Committee of the House on Rights and Immunities with the express mandate that it clarify the problems arising from it and report back to the House.

References

Debates, May 6, 1977, pp. 5361-3; June 14, 1977, p. 6647.