Both the Bloc Québécois and NDP have since supported his call for Fergus to rule that the government appeared to have violated MPs’ parliamentary privilege.
On Wednesday, Government House Leader Karina Gould called on Speaker Greg Fergus to reject opposition parties’ claim that the government violated MPs’ parliamentary privilege by refusing to provide them with unfettered access to thousands of documents regarding Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC).
“Mr. Speaker, we are in uncharted territory with this matter,” Gould said in the House of Commons chamber. “The House has exceeded its authority in ordering the production of documents not for its own use or the use of members of Parliament, but rather exclusive to, and for the use of, a third party.”
It could set the stage for an exceptional legal battle
apple.news
What makes the order by the House exceptional is that the documents were not ordered as part of a regular Parliamentary proceeding like a study by a House committee, but simply so that they can be passed on to the RCMP.