Mr. Speaker, on the question of privilege, I would like to make some initial remarks.

It is obviously true that misleading the House is always a serious matter and any instance of misleading the House by a minister, or in this case by the Prime Minister, would clearly affect our ability as members to do our jobs as parliamentarians.

In this case, the answer to the question of what the Prime Minister knew about the allegations against the former chief of the defence staff is critical to the larger issue of the government's failure to investigate allegations of sexual misconduct against the former chief of the defence staff and then allowing him to stay in charge of Operation Honour, a program to combat sexual misconduct in the Canadian Armed Forces, for another three years.

Knowing whether the Prime Minister was aware of the nature of the allegations against General Vance is critical to our power as parliamentarians to hold the government accountable. This case of misleading the House may constitute obstruction, as previous Speakers have found to be the case in other instances of misleading the House.

Obstructing what? The obstruction would be in allowing members to determine who was responsible for the government's failure to act on allegations of sexual misconduct at the highest level in the Canadian Armed Forces.

I urge you, Mr. Speaker, to look carefully at the evidence on this question found in testimony before the defence committee, which on its face appears to contradict the Prime Minister's statements in the House that neither he nor anyone in his office knew that General Vance was accused of sexual misconduct.

Again, whether the Prime Minister misled the House in this question is critical. If what the Prime Minister says is in fact true, it is hard to see how necessary reforms to stamp out misconduct in the military can have any credibility if the Minister of National Defence, who took no effective action on allegations of sexual misconduct at the highest level, remains in place.

Therefore, we need a clear answer of whether the Prime Minister has in fact attempted to mislead the House on this critical question.

Randall Garrison

$586,431.00