As the UN high commissioner noted in her final press statement when she left Sri Lanka and in her oral statement to the Human Rights Council, we are heading in an authoritarian direction here.

Perhaps there are some members opposite who remember the infamous Alberta press bill, where the legislature under the intellectually precedent government of the one opposite, the Social Credit Party of Alberta, said the press had to give the government side of every story they were running.

Stresses, in particular, the importance of coordinating all public statements related to the findings of EU EOMs and avoiding the issue of any statement in advance of the presentation by the EU EOM of its preliminary statement, and underlines the key role played in terms of visibility and credibility by the press conference, where the preliminary statement is presented for the first time; calls for both the press statements and reports of findings to be released in accordance with a timetable which takes into account the electoral sensitivities on the ground.

Points were made regarding statements in the press that Parliament would ratify the Kyoto protocol and the statements were attributed to statements made by the Prime Minister.

A few days ago the other house through Senator Carney raised the issue publicly in a press statement which was followed up by a news conference.

The contempt that she showed for the House of Commons by failing to make her policy statement here in the House as a ministerial statement rather than a statement to the press is an attempt to manipulate this House.