Question of Privilege
October 30, 1989
Access to parliamentary precincts: access by taxi of certain members of Parliament to the Parliament buildings—prima facie
Hon. John Fraser
Speaker of the House
Ruling Text
The Speaker:
The honourable Member for Windsor West and others have addressed the Chair on a question of privilege. Basically, the fact, as explained here in the last number of minutes, is that indeed certain vehicles carrying members of Parliament were stopped at least for a while.
There was also some suggestion that Members were denied access to the front door. I think that the honourable member for Windsor West mentioned that. The honourable Parliamentary Secretary to the Government House Leader has made a suggestion which seems to be quite sensible. There is some difficulty with respect to jurisdiction outside the walls of these buildings and under the circumstances, I am going to find that there is a prima facie case and I would hope that the appropriate motion would be put.
Postscript The motion of Mr. Gray (Windsor West), seconded by Stan Keyes (Hamilton West), was immediately put and adopted without debate. Accordingly, it was ordered that the matter of access by taxi of certain Members of Parliament to the Parliament buildings be referred to the Standing Committee on Elections, Privileges, Procedure and Private Members' Business. This Committee did not present a report to the House on this matter.
F0126-e 34-2 1989-10-30.
[1]
Debates, October 30, 1989, pp. 5298-301.
Edit Metadata
Holding
"A prima facie case of privilege exists concerning the impeded access of Members of Parliament to the Parliament buildings."
AI Summary
The Speaker ruled a prima facie question of privilege existed after members' access to Parliament buildings by taxi was impeded.
AI Analysis
- Outcome
- Sustained
- Tone
- Neutral
- Procedural Stage
- Question of Privilege Proceeding
- Significance
Low
High