Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I concur with all of what Parliamentary Secretary MacKenzie had to say. I too commend Ms. Mourani for her attempts to bring some reason and logic to these proceedings. Unfortunately, though I think she is making valid and legitimate attempts to bring fairness and some sort of procedural equity to this debate, of course as part of a two-member caucus in this six-member coalition, she cannot stand up to the member who is clearly the leader of the pack. Once again, we're dealing with Mr. Holland's omnibus motion to dictate the list, with some minor crumbs being thrown to the government.
Folks, this is a committee of Parliament. We are all duly elected by our constituents in our respective electoral districts to participate in the democratic process. There are 12 members of this committee, 11 of whom vote. Five of them vote on this side of the table, and six of them vote on the other.
There is only one fair and equitable way to come up with a witness list. Just as an aside, I have to tell you that the other committee I sit on--and I think my friend Mr. Comartin will concur with this and certainly Mr. Norlock will concur--typically does not work in this sort of dictatorial fashion, where one member comes with a list of proposed witnesses, moves an omnibus motion with the support of the six voting members from the opposition and forces his will upon the committee.
Mr. Wrzesnewskyj commented on my speech on Thursday. What I meant when I referred to a tyranny of the minority was somewhat unclear to him. By way of clarification, there is a tyranny of the minority when an individual who does not represent the majority of interests of Canadians--and we just heard from a letter written by a former lifelong Liberal supporter who is now a disenchanted—