Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am at page 1 of the French text, which reads as follows:Review of Bill C-2 Federal Accountability ActIntroductionThe purpose of this review is to identify those aspects of Bill C-2 that impact the constitutional position of the House of Commons and its members or that otherwise violate provisions of the Constitution Act, 1867, pertaining to the House of Commons. This review, therefore, is limited to parliamentary law issues.
Furthermore, if you turn your attention to the summary on the previous page, you will see the following headings: “Secret Ballot Votes”, “Debates and Votes in the House”, “Conflicts of Interest and the Ethics Commissioner”, “Requests to the Ethics Commissioner”, “Members and Trusts”, “Parliamentary Budget Officer”, and “References to Parliament”.
This document is referring to clauses of the proposed legislation that are contrary to the Charter, the Constitution, or the Parliament of Canada Act.
Some members may still wish to fast track Bill C-2 even after having studied this document; however, I do not think that Mr. Walsh or Mr. Denis would advocate such an approach. I think that they would be more inclined to advocate the respect of parliamentary procedure and parliamentary law. This document leaves us with no choice but to hear testimony from Mr. Walsh and the Speaker of the House of Commons, unless we want to amend legislation that has not been touched since 1867, and which would involve amending the Constitution.
There comes a point when you have to say that enough is enough. We have been given an important document. It is all very well to debate motions seeking to complete our study of the bill on the double, but the document that has been provided to us by the office of the law clerk leads me to believe that would be irresponsible, dangerous and disrespectful of parliamentary tradition. Of course, the committee can opt to make it a partisan issue.