Sunday, February 25, 2007

Freedom to be Heard: An Open Letter to the Speaker of the House

Mr Speaker:

Thank you for accepting the responsibility of maintaining order in the House of Commons. As in any house, it is understood that there are rules of decorum to ensure peace and order and to allow for positive interaction.

Every schoolchild in our great country has been taught certain rules of behaviour to ensure order in the classroom and to allow every other child an opportunity to speak and to be heard. The simplest of these rules, but the most difficult to practice, is the admonition not to interrupt when someone else is speaking. The practical corollary is that one must value the time and opinions of others and therefore must not occupy the floor indefinitely, giving both time and place for others to express themselves. These simple courtesies, like all ethical courtesies emanate from the Golden Rule regarding human interaction: “Love your neighbour as yourself”.

It is unthinkable, in the great House of Commons, whose honourable members are chosen by the great people of this great land, that those members should behave toward one another in a manner less courteous, less polite and less honourable than that expected of every schoolchild.

In our country, for which men and women have died, we place a high value on freedom of speech…and rightly so. That freedom, that privilege, that courtesy---predates Canada’s founding, and is in evidence in every truly civilized nation in the world. Freedom of speech must be accompanied by freedom to be heard. If the opinions of some speakers in the House of Commons are drowned out by hisses and catcalls, we have dishonoured the house and denied representation to those people whose chosen member has been denied the freedom to be heard. Technology has taken us from sound exposition to the soundbite. The decay of public morality and ethics has turned soundbites into biting sounds. It used to be said “His bark is worse than his bite.” Today, we may say that the bark is the bite. Mr. Speaker, if only the loudest voices, only the angriest, only the rudest are allowed to be heard, Canada will become a nation governed by the loud, the angry and the rude. That must not be.

Mr. Speaker, I ask that while the House sits you exercise that necessary level of oversight to ensure that every member of the House may be heard. By exercising the special authority granted to you over the affairs of the House, to encourage full and free debate, full of thoughtful considerations and free of snide contempt for those we address as “honourable”, without partisan pandering, you may be remembered as the Speaker who raised the level of respect and honour among the honourable members both within and without the chambers of the House of Commons.

Thank you,
Rod Taylor

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