Lucien Cannon (Solicitor General of Canada)
Liberal
Mr. CANNON:
What is all the fuss about?
Mr. CANNON:
What is all the fuss about?
Mr. MACDOUGALL:
The fuss is about a member of your party opening a letter that did not belong to him. You would not have done that, I trust, and I trust you would raise some fuss about it if anybody had done it against you.
Mr. SPEAKER:
I would ask the hon. gentleman to use the third person when referring to another hon. member.
Mr. MACDOUGALL:
My hon. friend from Antigonish-Guysborough by no stretch of his imagination, and he has quite a good imagination. I fancy, could interpret this as being his frank. He has opened a letter addressed to a certain person, Fred H. Sullivan, Esquire, Argyle Street, Glace Bay, which is not even in the hon. gentleman's county.
Mr. DUFF:
It was returned to my post office box.
Mr. MACDOUGALL:
You opened it
knowing it did not belong to you.
Mr. DUFF:
How did I know?
Mr. MACDOUGALL:
You could see by the letter it did not belong to you.
Mr. DUFF:
Not until I opened it.
Mr. MACDOUGALL:
It is not your frank, the letter is not addressed to you, and exercising the ordinary courtesy of a gentleman you should have returned that letter, but you opened it.
Mr. DUFF:
To whom was I to return
it?
Mr. MACDOUGALL:
To the post office because you knew that letter did not belong to you.
Mr. DUFF:
I know now, of course.
Mr. MACDOUGALL:
You opened a
letter belonging to somebody else.
Mr. SPEAKER:
Order. The question of privilege has been stated, the answer has been given. Now, I leave the chair for the house to go into committee of supply.
Hon. CHARLES A. DUNNING (Minister of Finance): I suggest that the wrongful use of a frank is a matter within Your Honour's control as Speaker of the house. Allegations have been made and in turn denied. The questions. I presume, are questions of fact.
I have not seen the frank, and I am not attempting to judge as to the correctness of my hon. friend's statement. I am merely remarking that it is a matter for Your Honour to deal with.
Mr. SPEAKER:
This is a matter for the Postmaster General to deal with.
Hon. LUCIEN CANNON (Solicitor General) :
I am quite sure, Mr. Speaker, that the members of the house would be satisfied to leave the matter in your hands. I think everybody will agree that no member should open a letter not addressed to him; and if the hon. member for An/tigoniSh-Guysboro (Mr. Duff) did so, I am confident it was under a misapprehension that the letter was addressed to himself.
Mr. DUFF:
I opened it thinking I had
sent it. It had my frank on it.
Mr. MACDOUGALL:
It was not your
frank.
Mr. DUFF:
I saw my initials.