Rules of Debate / Tabling of Documents

Tabling of documents

Debates p. 115

Background

Immediately after Oral Questions, Mr. Woolliams (Calgary North) rose on a point of order to demand the tabling of a document that had been quoted from in the House the previous day by Mr. Goyer (Solicitor General). After hearing Members' comments, the Speaker ruled.

Issue

Must a document quoted in the House be tabled?

Decision

Yes. Any public document quoted in the course of a debate must be tabled.

Reasons given by the Speaker

The rule governing tabling is clear. If a document is quoted in debate it has to be tabled. If a letter, even though it might have been written originally as a private document, becomes part of the record of a department, it is, thereafter, a public paper. The papers to which the Minister referred are part of the official penitentiary files and, if cited by the Minister, ought to be tabled in the House.

Sources cited

Beauchesne, 4th ed., pp. 134-5, c. 159.

May, 17th ed., p. 438.

References

Debates, February 22, 1972, pp. 113-4.