July 29, 1975 (30th Parliament, 1st Session)

Hon. Gerard Pelletier (Minister of Communications):

On the same question of privilege, Mr. Speaker, I wanted to point out the existence-which I already knew-of the inquiry recommended by your Honour, and the fact that the hon. member has a rather dangerous way of using words. For instance, when he was speaking of that equipment as revealing the nature of a telephone call, I fail to understand what he means; he is using words in a very, very dangerous way. He spoke about the nature of the calls, insisting that the word nature did not mean contents. But what is the nature if not the contents? Then he went on to say that members of Parliament must be free to receive confidential calls. Confidentiality has nothing to do in the present circumstances. I wanted to suggest what you have just suggested yourself, your Honour, that the inquiry actually take place and that such abuse of vocabulary be avoided in the meantime, otherwise an overall commotion may occur throughout the country for nothing at all. This may happen now and again, but it should not be an every day occurrence.