Mr. Speaker, I will have a brief initial response and reserve the right to come back further with more details.

I would like to touch on four points.

First, the tabling of treaty policies is not a product of the Standing Orders of the House or any rules of practice of the House. It is indeed a government policy, which can be found on the Government of Canada, Department of Foreign Affairs website. That is where it exists. That is its origin. It is a policy that applies not to the House but rather to the activities of the government. From that perspective, it is not an appropriate point for you, Mr. Speaker, to rule on, that is the question of whether or not the government is complying with its policy. It is not a question of whether the rules of the House are being followed.

First, Mr. Speaker, I would say to you that there is no jurisdiction for you to deal with it.

Second, the policy itself in substance does provide, as the hon. member indicated, opportunity for exemptions for the policy including, for example, for urgency and for other bases. In this case, the fact is that the government, the cabinet, actually did grant such an exemption to the tabling policy. As such, the very words of the policy, the requirements of the policy, have been followed. The processes for obtaining the exemption were obtained. As a result, the requirement that it be tabled in the House 21 days in advance of the legislation being introduced is not necessary and the policy is fully complied with. From that perspective, the point the member raises is interesting but moot as the policy has been complied with.

The third point I would raise is actually the purpose behind the policy, or the objective of the tabling policy. I think this goes to the heart of why an exemption is also appropriate here.

The purpose of the policy is to give an opportunity for the House, if it wishes, to express its views on a proposed treaty and to give an opportunity for a debate and a vote to be had on that matter. In this case, because it is actually being implemented through legislation, the House does have exactly such an opportunity to assess the policy, to vote on it, to deliberate, decide and make the determination on whether or not to proceed forward with the treaty and therefore then allow the government to ratify it. Ratification, as you know Mr. Speaker, is a separate process that is done by the Governor in Council, by cabinet.

The purpose of the policy is to allow the opportunity for the House, for the opposition or anybody else who wishes to identify it for debate and to allow that to happen. Because there is actual legislation going forward, there will be an opportunity for the House to pass judgment on it as it has done at second reading and as it will have an opportunity to do presumably at report stage and third reading. From that perspective, the policy purpose behind the tabling policy is also respected, as well as the actual words of the policy itself.

Finally, it seems particularly ironic that such a point of order would come out of the Liberal Party, whose members for years resisted any such policy and never had it as one of their practices. Liberals maintained full jurisdiction within the Prime Minister and the cabinet to deal with treaties and their ratification without ever bringing them to the House of Commons, without ever requiring an opportunity for members of Parliament to see them before they became law and before they were ratified. From that perspective, I am surprised the Liberals would have the chutzpah to bring forward this argument after years of behaving in an entirely different fashion, but then I am not surprised because that does tend to be the way they do things.

Therefore, I do not think there is any merit to the point of order that has been raised both on the facts and interpretation of the rules and on the jurisdiction that you have, Mr. Speaker, as well as the irony of the Liberals bringing this point of order forward themselves. However, I will reserve the opportunity, since I had no notice of this point of order, to come back with further arguments if that is necessary.

Peter Van Loan

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