Mr. E. J. YOUNG (Weybum):

Mr. Speaker, I rise to a question of personal privilege. Yesterday when the Prime Minister (Mr. Bennett) was concluding his speech he assured the house that at this session the fullest opportunity would be given thoroughly to discuss and consider all the legislation brought down, but he added that the house would not listen or the government did not propose to listen to such vaudeville effusions as emanated from the member for Weybum during the short session.

I know my right hon. friend has been working very hard. I know he is tired and his nerves are on edge, and I am prepared to make every possible allowance-

Mr. SPEAKER:

Order. The hon. member for Weybum (Mr. Young) would be better advised to make his remarks when we come to the orders of the day ratheT than at the present time, if he should be in order then.

Right Hon. W. L. MACKENZIE KING (Leader of the Opposition):

Mr. Speaker, I submit that a question of privilege is in order at any time. As a matter of fact, the rules of the house indicate that the sooner such a question is raised the better. I humbly submit-

Mr. SPEAKER:

If the hon. member for Weybum is raising a question of privilege he is in order. I did not understand him to be so doing.

Mr. YOUNG:

Yes, your honour, it is a question of personal privilege.

Right Hon. R. B. BENNETT (Prime Minister):

He certainly was not discussing a question of privilege when called to order.

Privilege-Mr. Young

Mr. YOUNG:

I am prepared to state the question of privilege, Mr. Speaker. The question, as it appears to me and to everybody with whom I have discussed it since the statement was made by my right hon. friend yesterday, is this: Has the Prime Minister of this country the right or the power to say that a member shall or shall not be heard in this house?

That is not privilege.

Mr. YOUNG:

Anything that I said during the short session was very much to the point.

Oh, oh.

Mr. YOUNG:

I repeat, it was very much to the point.

What point?

Mr. YOUNG:

To the point under discussion. If my right hon. friend or any of his supporters wish to silence the member for Weybum, all they have to do is demolish his argument;-

Order.

Mr. \OUNG: -but if the Prime Minister undertakes to say with respect to any member whether he shall or shall not speak in this house, I submit-

Mr. SPEAKER:

Order. When the right hon. Prime Minister undertakes to interfere with the privileges of the hon. member for Weyburn or of any other hon. member, it will be time enough to deal with the matter.

I would suggest that the hon. member for Weyburn cannot now anticipate anything of the sort.

Mr. YOUNG:

He made the statement.

Mr. SPEAKER:

The right hon. Prime Minister in referring to the remarks made by the hon. member for Weyburn last session may have expressed his disapproval of those remarks, but until some action is attempted by the Prime Minister or by some other member to interfere with the rights of the hon. member for Weyburn it is idle for him to anticipate such action The hon. member for Weyburn has all the rights and privileges of a member of this house, and I am sure the Prime Minister would not wish to interfere with them.

Mr. MACKENZIE KING:

I should like to say a word, Mr. Speaker, on the privilege of the house itself in matters of this kind. The statement I wish to draw to your honour's (Mr. Bennett.]

attention occurred in the course of the speech the right hon. Prime Minister made yesterday. I did not like to interrupt my right hon. friend while he was speaking, but I certainly intended to comment on the uncalled-for reference he made to the hon. member for Weyburn. As reported in Hansard of yesterday, at page 71, the right hon. gentleman said:

I will say we do not propose to listen to any vaudeville effusions such as we had last session from the hon. member for Weyburn (Mr. Young). An intelligent discussion is one thing; but the discussions that then took place were merely endeavours to wear out the patience of the minister in charge, and I think most of the hon. gentleman's friends held the same view.

I would refer the house to Beauchesne's Parliamentary Rules and Forms, section 157, in which there is the following reference from May's Parliamentary Practice (12th edition):

Interference with or reflections upon members have been resented as indignities to the house itself.

Speaking for the opposition, I wish to say that we regard as an indignity upon the house itself the remarks made by the Prime Minister yesterday in reference to the hon. member for Weyburn, and as such I feel they cannot be too strongly resented. They were reflections upon an hon. gentleman who performed his duties as a member in a most efficient and effective manner during the session referred to. His offence, in the mind of my right hon. friend, was that his duties were performed so efficiently and effectively.

I would also direct attention to section 158, also quoting May:

In the Commons, on the 12th April, 1733, and on the 1st June, 1780, it was resolved that it was a high infringement of the privilege of the house, a crime and misdemeanor, to assault, insult or menace any member of the house, in his coming or going from the house, or upon the account of his behaviour in parliament.

I ask your honour if the words used yesterday by the Prime Minister were not in the nature of a menacing statement and a threat to an hon. member of this house with respect to his behaviour, which he described as "vaudeville effusions."

Mr. BENNETT:

It was.