Thank you. I would like to provide my ruling on the point of order raised by Mr. Lewis on March 2nd which is contained on page 988 of unedited Hansard. The point of order raised by the honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Lewis, was in regard to comments made by the Member for Thebacha, Mrs. Marie-Jewell, surrounding the use of unparliamentary language by Mr. Lewis.
The point of order raised by Mr. Lewis was that Mrs. Marie-Jewell, in her comments as contained on page 987 indicated, and I quote: "Mr. Speaker, I did not appreciate those comments then and I still don't appreciate them. In fact, those comments are unparliamentary." In her comments earlier, Mrs. Marie-Jewell quoted from remarks that Mr. Lewis had made during his Member's statement given on February 20th, which is contained on pages 433 and 434 of unedited Hansard. The Member for Thebacha also added her own interpretation of Mr. Lewis' comments, and I quote again from page 987 of unedited Hansard: "He even said that the people of Yellowknife feel that Members who support the idea of a spring election are guilty of sleazy tactics."
In reviewing the comments made by Mr. Lewis in his Member's statement surrounding the use of the word "sleazy," I think it is important to actually read the whole statement to understand the context in which the word "sleazy" was used. I would like to quote what was said by Mr. Lewis, contained on page 434 of unedited Hansard, and I quote: "Any move to have a spring election very soon would be seen as opportunism and an attempt by MLAs to catch the opposition with their pants down and would be seen by many of the people of Yellowknife as completely sleazy tactics."
I have considered the matter. The use of a word or words that are intended to convey a direct imputation on another Member or on the House, itself, is of course out of order and unparliamentary. In considering the matter, the chair considered the words of the Member that lead up to the use of the word that appeared to offend Mrs. Marie-Jewell. I find that in this situation the Member for Yellowknife Centre did not make a direct imputation with the use of the word "sleazy," therefore, Mr. Lewis does have a point of order. Mrs. Marie-Jewell.