Mr. Speaker, good morning. We are in favour of the amendment. I have been sitting in this House for nine years, since 1993. I always thought that a distinction should be made between the work done here in the House of Commons and the work done in the other House.
I would have never thought that the government, particularly the government House leader, would be so—I must say the word, hoping that it is parliamentary language--spineless as to ask us to collectively forgo our privileges as members of the House of Commons. What is happening here is quite significant.
I hope that people in the gallery understand that we, as the elected representatives of the people, the 301 members of the House of Commons, are legislators. We have been elected here to represent the people. We are the ones with democratic legitimacy. We know our constitutional history.
The Senate, and I will have the opportunity to come back to this, is not there to defy this House. The Senate is there to review the bills that are proposed to it by the House of Commons, but the House of Commons is the real decision-making centre in our democracy.
We had already chosen to divide the bill earlier. We went through the whole legislative process we had to go through and we were at third reading stage. It may be useful to remind those who are listening to us what this legislative work is.
A bill is introduced, which is the first reading, and everyone knows that this is something automatic; there is no debate at this stage. Then, there is second reading, where the principles of the bill are debated. At the end of the second reading stage, the bill is referred to a committee, one of the House's several standing committees of the House. Finally, there is the third reading stage, where we comment on the principles, once the bill has gone through clause by clause consideration in committee.
The bill we are asked us to split, to divide into two bills, had gone through most of the legislative process. It was at third reading stage.
What right does the Senate—which is made up of people who are not elected but appointed, as we know, through a partisan system, therefore people who for all intents and purposes do what the Prime Minister tells them to, because they do not represent anyone—have to do this? The Senate is not there to defy the House. The Senate could not bring the government down. The other place cannot hold a vote of non-confidence. Not only are senators not elected, but they cannot pass bills that would lead to increased government expenditures. And now, they want us to suspend the democratic will of members of the House of Commons. This is unacceptable. We shall never accept this kind of process.
What is worse, the government is demonstrating complacency beyond what we thought possible. We have seen that this government is servile. We have seen that this government is complacent. Nor is this the first time that the government is being spineless. We have seen how the government is unable to hold its own when important issues are raised. However, for the government to ask us to forgo our privileges by asking us to agree that this not be a precedent, that is beyond comprehension.
How can the government be so servile? How can the government cave in so shamelessly when it comes to our work at legislators? We know that we are not dealing with a courageous government. We are not dealing with a very active government. We are having problems getting legislation to look at.
Not only is the government not active, not interventionist, but when the time comes for us to do our job, it is prepared to abdicate the privileges we have in this House. This is unacceptable.
I know that at such times we can rely on the Chair. The Speaker is the guardian of our freedoms. I do not know if Canadians and Quebeckers are aware of this, but if there were a world conflict and if Parliament were unable to sit, the Speaker would have an important role to play. In an emergency situation, such as an apprehended insurrection or any other calamity that would prevent Parliament from sitting, should we have to contact the British authorities, the only person empowered to do so would be the Speaker.
This is why the Speaker is the guardian of our freedoms. When we see the Speaker and the Sergeant-at-Arms process in front of us with the mace, which is the symbol of our authority, we understand that we are invited to sit, that we are plenipotentiaries who can do what they were elected to do, which is to pass laws.
I will never accept that the other chamber would ask us, at a stage as late as third reading, to start the whole legislative process all over. This shows how anachronistic that institution is. Why, after three mandates, has this government still not deemed it appropriate to examine on the role of senators? Is it acceptable to have people who have no democratic legitimacy making decisions for their peers?
In this House, there is a convention. We accept dissent, we accept diverging views, we accept the fact that we may not all agree on something, but there is a common base, in that all members are elected. All members have received the same democratic stamp of approval. All members who rise in this House do so on behalf of their fellow citizens. But the other place wants to interfere with our authority, with our legitimacy.
I will never, no matter how long I live, forgive the member for Glengarry—Prescott—Russell for the kind complacency, if not servility, that makes him so totally spineless when the time comes to defend our parliamentary privileges. He has the nerve to present this motion, even in its amended form. If there had not been an amendment, the government would have been perfectly willing to allow one of our privileges to be breached.
There is no greater privilege for members of this House than to organize how they operate as they see fit. We agree that the executive, the government, has a role, which is to initiate bills. Once again, however, that is not the issue today.
Today, we are saying that we acknowledge the fact that the other chamber has interfered with how we operate, trampled our authority, shown disdain for the work done by parliamentarians. Yet the government is asking us to say “This time we will accept it, but not as a precedent that will work against us later on”. This is not possible. We will not cooperate in such a ploy.
We do not necessarily have anything against the bill. The firearms issue does, of course, stir up a lot of passions. We are familiar with the debate here, even within our own caucus.
I am a Montreal MP, and of course have not received any representations about the firearms issue. The only animals in my riding are in the Biodome, and they are pretty well contained.
I do, however, readily acknowledge that some members have received many representations, particularly those whose ridings are in isolated regions, such as my friend, the member for Frontenac—Mégantic, where the firearms issue is viewed in different terms than in Hochelaga—Maisonneuve, which is close to the inner city.
We agreed that the right to bear arms is not in our constitution. The right our citizens have under the constitution is to live in peace, free of violence and illegal search and seizure. They have the right to be protected from physical violence and to have their physical well-being respected. No one in this House, no constitutional expert, could argue that the right to bear arms is a right under the constitution.
It seemed reasonable to us—