Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to add my comments to the point of privilege being raised by Mr. Ramsay. He stated some of the circumstances related to this yesterday when he raised a point of order and at the time we didn't have the records or more objective evidence as to exactly what happened. But I think listening to the comments being said today and also the statement that the Minister made yesterday, and the fact that we do have witnesses in Mrs. Groenewegen and Mr. Pokiak and some other Members, I think that there's enough statements on record that suggest that there is no question about what happened. Something did happen and what happened is a threat on the part of the Minister to the economic security and well-being of the family members.

Mr. Speaker, I just want to say that I believe that the Minister is very sincere in his regrets and apologies, and although I think some of my constituents might not agree,

because there's, in the Minister's job you can't make everybody happy. I'm sure there are many who feel that the Minister might not be, might not have done the greatest job, but I have to tell you, in watching his work day in and day out here I don't think there's any dispute that he's a hardest working Member and he's one of the better performing Ministers. So I don't think there is any question about his performance as a Minister. But I think he's also aware of the seriousness of the Members being threatened in this House for doing what we have been elected by the people to do.

Mr. Speaker, on many occasions as a Member here in my time of seven years, I have raised points of privilege on my right to be a Member and do my job and to have the freedom to speak. There is a long tradition in our parliamentary tradition to put mechanisms, laws and rules in place to protect that. There is a reason why the Members cannot be sued for things we do say in this Chamber. We have a wide room for privilege, so we do have the right to speak on behalf of constituents. There are consequences of us doing our job. We are threatened. I have been personally threatened by supporters of Ministers. My family members have been threatened. There is a daily intimidation going around because sometimes what we do here and the laws we make or the questions we ask could cost people jobs. I don't mean...Policies could affect people's businesses and people come and do express and sometimes we feel intimidated by doing things we are sent here to do.

It is a very unfortunate moment. I regret that this has happened. I don't know what happened yesterday. It was one of those moments in time, things that the Minister regrets and that the Minister should not have done, but when it comes to the freedom of Members to function fully, in order to speak for people who cannot speak for themselves, whether they are employees, businesses or people on the street, sometimes they are scared of coming and telling us what they want us to bring up. The last thing we need in the well-being of democracy that we value and the system of government we value, we have to be very careful when the right of Members to speak on these issues are in any way intimidated.

I am sure, Mr. Speaker, you will use your resources to look at the very well established precedence in this regard. I don't think there is a question about the facts of the case. I await your ruling on this, but I do have to say this is a very serious issue, very regrettable, and it is very unfortunate that it happened, but it is something that we do have to stand up and be accountable for. Thank you.