the Speaker should ask himself, when he has to decide whether to grant precedence over other public business to a motion which a Member who has complained of some act or conduct as constituting a breach of privilege desires to move, should be not do I consider that, assuming that the facts are as stated, the act or conduct constitutes a breach of privilege, but could it reasonably be held to be a breach of privilege, or to put it shortly, has the Member an arguable point?

52 As it has not been asserted that the risks of interference with the exercise by Mr Mote of his parliamentary functions were constituted by restrictions of a kind other than those stemming from the proceedings brought by the law enforcement authorities of his Member State of origin, it must be concluded that the Parliament did not err in law when it decided to waive Mr Mote’s immunity without ruling on the privilege which was granted to him in his capacity as a Member or deciding that Article 8 of the Protocol had been infringed in the present case".

A competent authority invested with the powers proposed in the amendment could seriously undermine legal confidentiality and legal privilege.

If one's privileges have been denied, all of our privileges have been denied, the way I view it.

Honourable senators, another very important point is that the breach of privilege can be reflective not only of an internal analysis of what is taking place — and it is all there in the Hansard of the other place — but also that there is an external dimension that speaks to this breach of privilege.

In his claim of a breach of privilege, my Alliance senatorial colleague Gerry St. Germain from B.C. noted that parliamentary authority Joseph Maingot states that to constitute privilege generally there must be some improper obstruction to the member performing his or her parliamentary work in either a direct or constructive way.