Ruling
October 29, 1980
False representation of House proceedings
Hon. Jeanne Sauvé
Speaker of the House
Ruling Text
To amount to contempt, statements relating to proceedings of the House or the participation of Members should not only be erroneous, but rather they should be deliberately incorrect and improper and import an element of deceit. Moreover, the document in question does not lend itself to "such a distorted" interpretation of the events or of observations which have characterized proceedings of the House in such a way that they could be labelled as "false".
Edit Metadata
Holding
"For a statement about House proceedings to be considered contempt, it must be proven to be a deliberately incorrect and deceitful representation, not simply an error or a distorted interpretation."
AI Summary
A ruling clarifying that for a statement about House proceedings to be considered contempt, it must be deliberately false and deceitful, not just incorrect.
AI Analysis
- Outcome
- Denied
- Tone
- Educational
- Significance
Low
High