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House Hansard - 159

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
February 13, 2023 11:00AM
Context: House Hansard - 159 - Feb/13/23
The Speaker
  • Feb/13/23 11:08:09 a.m.
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I must interrupt the hon. member. There are problems with the interpretation. I am told that it is now fixed. The hon. member for Essex may continue his speech.
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Context: House Hansard - 159 - Feb/13/23
The Speaker
  • Feb/13/23 3:37:09 p.m.
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I am now ready to rule on the question of privilege raised on February 8 by the House Leader of the official opposition concerning technical difficulties affecting interpretation services. In his intervention, the House Leader alleged that a breach of his privileges and those of his colleagues occurred because simultaneous interpretation services were not available during a caucus meeting held earlier that day. Citing past examples, the member noted that technical issues at caucus meetings had resulted in findings of prima facie cases of privilege. While the member conceded that these examples concerned the unauthorized recording of caucus meetings, he argued that the technical issues preventing simultaneous interpretation had the same effect of impeding members in the discharge of their parliamentary duties. The member for Mégantic—L'Érable noted that, as a francophone, he felt particularly impacted by the failure of the interpretation system, since the majority of the discussions were in English. While grateful for the attempts made by the interpreters to provide service, he expressed concern that francophones are disadvantaged in such situations and that English would come to predominate. The member for Salaberry—Suroît agreed with the member for Mégantic-L’Érable’s contentions. After having praised the remarkable work done by interpreters, she added that technical difficulties are also regularly encountered in committee meetings. In her opinion, technical issues affecting interpretation in caucus meetings and committee meetings both infringe on the rights of members. Being able to participate in parliamentary proceedings and other activities in the official language of their choice is critical to members, committee witnesses and all who interact with Parliament. It is an obligation the Chair takes very seriously. While some have expressed concern about a possible decline, recent statistics compiled by House administration show that the use of each official language by members and by witnesses has been at roughly the same percentage over the past three years. Our mutual understanding is only possible with the work of our interpreters and the reliability of our audio system. While our audio system that supports simultaneous interpretation generally works very well, issues do, on rare occasions, occur. In a ruling on a similar matter, one of my predecessors stated on March 3, 2014, at page 3429 of the Debates: In the case of official languages, the House has a long-standing practice of ensuring the availability of professional interpreters during House and committee proceedings. Indeed, this practice extends to many other activities, such as caucus meetings, briefings or any number of parliamentary activities and events. […] if a technical problem arises with the equipment, proceedings are suspended until the issue is resolved. Members will be familiar with this as it has sometimes happened here in the House. In this case, when the matter was first raised, I asked for a report from the House administration on the circumstances surrounding the technical difficulties that were encountered. As is the standard practice, technical staff conducted tests of the room early in the morning. However, immediately prior to the start of the caucus meeting, an additional pre-meeting test was conducted and an issue was identified with the audio system. Some mitigating measures were put in place, but the problem nonetheless persisted. The caucus meeting proceeded without interpretation and, unfortunately, the issue was resolved only towards the end of the meeting. The Chair wants to reassure members that this matter is being taken very seriously by myself and the entire House administration. Technical teams are continuing their tests and troubleshooting to prevent issues like this from occurring again. While the Chair empathizes with members' frustrations over technical issues that sometimes disrupt our work, in a ruling such as this, the Chair must arrive at a decision within the confines of parliamentary privilege. In other words, the Chair must determine if the technical issues at a caucus meeting impeded members in performing their parliamentary duties and whether the matter should be given priority consideration by the House, but first the Chair must determine if a caucus meeting is, indeed, considered a parliamentary proceeding. In the same ruling cited earlier, it is stated at page 3430 of the Debates: Whether a member who is preparing to participate in proceedings—whether through a technical briefing or some other means—is not participating in the proceedings themselves. While such preparation is no doubt important, it remains ancillary to, rather than part of, Parliament's proceedings. In the case before us, it is the view of the Chair that a caucus meeting is ancillary to proceedings. The member for Salaberry—Suroît also raised concerns relating to committee meetings, which undoubtedly constitute parliamentary proceedings. That said, it is a well-established practice that the Chair does not intervene in committee matters in the absence of a report from the committee. While the Chair appreciates that there have been interruptions in a variety of committees, none of these has reported it to the House as a potential breach of privilege. For the issue raised by the House Leader of the official opposition as well as technical issues in committees, there exist other administrative recourses to address them. To this end, the Board of Internal Economy appears to be the appropriate forum. In light of this, the Chair does not find a prima facie question of privilege. I thank members for their attention.
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