Mr. RALPH MAYBANK (Winnipeg South Centre):

Mr. Speaker, I rise to a question of privilege. My question of privilege arises out of what purports to be a report of the proceedings of this house. I should say that this report does not emanate from the parliamentary press gallery. This report is not an accurate report; it is a complete misreport of supposed proceedings in this house. I do not know whether the error is an error on the part of the newspaper or whether the fault lies with the hon. member who represents Winnipeg North. The facts which I find necessary to lay before the house are as follows:

The Winnipeg Free Press under date of October IS, 1945, has a fairly lengthy report of a meeting of the Winnipeg district trades and labour council. After reporting on

numerous matters that took place at the council meeting the Free Press publishes the following:

Replies were read from Prime Minister King, Hon. C. D. Howe, L. A. Mutch, M.P.,

S. Knowles, M.P., Ralph Maybank, M.P., and

Alistair Stewart, regarding the council's resolution passed at a mass meeting in the Playhouse theatre on the question of reconversion, unemployment in the aircraft industry, and the post-war programme prepared by the Trades and Labour Congress of Canada.

The report goes on to indicate the nature of these replies which were received from various hon. members, and then continues:

A letter from Alistair Stewart said that he had brought the matter up in the house but

that Ralph Maybank talked the resolution out, so that no vote could be taken on it. "Afterwards Maybank received the congratulations from government members for his sabotage," said Stewart's letter.

Mr. SPEAKER:

Order. The hon. gentleman knows that any hon. member may rise to a question of privilege in connection with any matter in respect of which his integrity or honesty are put in doubt, and I would ask the hon. member to state his question of privilege.

Mr. MAYBANK:

Precisely, Mr. Speaker; that is the point. Moreover, there is also the question of the privileges of the house itself, as you will observe from the remainder of that which I desire to present to you. That which I have read as being the report of a letter by the hon. member for Winnipeg North (Mr. Stewart) is not merely an inaccuracy, nor can it even be called a distorted report of anything that occurred in this house. It might be termed a perversion of the truth, but a better way of describing it would be to say that it is pure fiction and has no relation whatsoever to truth. It is a complete make-up.

The newspaper story states that Alistair Stewart, who is the representative of Winnipeg North in this House of Commons, brought up in this chamber the question of a resolution of the Winnipeg and district trades and labour council which had been passed at a mass meeting, dealing with the question of reconversion, unemployment in the aircraft industry and the post-war programme prepared by the Trades and Labour Congress of Canada. The said Alistair Stewart, the member referred to in the news story, never did bring up this question in this chamber. In fact the said gentleman never initiated anything in this chamber at any time. The said gentleman is reported to have stated that I talked out the resolution which he had brought up and that therefore no vote could be taken on it. That statement, of course, is utterly without foundation. Not content with an excursion into the realm of fancy to the extent already indicated, he goes on to say that government members in this chamber congratulated me for the imaginary sabotage of a mythical proposal.

If the hon. gentleman is correctly reported it is probably incumbent upon us to offer him our congratulations upon his flair for publicity, but at the same time this is a mere fairy tale as far as being a report of the proceeding in this chamber is concerned. I submit therefore that it is not merely my privilege but my duty to bring to the atten-

Veterans Affairs

tion of the house this misreport, which, like all libels, will find its way far abroad as a result of the manner in which it is put out.

Mr. STEWART:

May I suggest that the

hon. member for Winnipeg South Centre (Mr. Maybank) should know much better than to accept the Free Press as being accurate. What I said in my letter was correct. I am not responsible for what the Free Press says.

Mr. MAYBANK:

I said in the beginning that I did not know whose fault it was, but someone is at fault.

Hon. J. L. ILSLEY (Acting Prime Minister):

I should like to table copy of order in council passed to-day appointing Mr. A. Davidson Dunton of Montreal, a governor of the Canadian Boardcasting Corporation and chairman of the board. Mr. Dunton will be the first full-time chairman of the board appointed in pursuance to the legislation of 1944. He will take up his duties on November 15. The appointment is for a period of three years.

I should like also to table copies of two orders in council dated October 18, 1945, passed pursuant to the provisions of the Public Service Rearrangement and Transfer of Duties Act. One of these orders in council transfers the powers, duties and functions of the Minister of National War Sendees with respect to film activities under the National Film Act of 1939 to the Hon. Brooke Claxton, a minister of the crown. The other order, effective as of October 15, 1945, transfers the powers, duties and functions vested in the Minister of National War Services under the Canadian Broadcasting Act, 1936, with respect to broadcasting, to the Hon. J. J. McCann, a minister of the crown.

Mr. STANLEY KNOWLES (Winnipeg North Centre):

Before the orders of the day are proceeded with I should like to direct a question to the Minister of Munitions and Supply, of which I have sent him notice, together with a copy of a telegram in relation thereto, so I need not read the telegram now. Has the minister been advised of the fact that progress in connection with the Bannatyne avenue water project in Brook-lands, Manitoba, is being held up by a government order freezing six-inch cast iron water pipe? In view of the seriousness of this situation, will the minister give consideration to releasing a sufficient quantity of this water pipe to enable the contractor to proceed with this work before freeze-up?