Why do opposition members want to shut it down? Why do they want to shut it down? Why do they want to stop members from talking? Why do they want us to stop pulling out these facts? Because they're determined to push through a bad bill regardless. Regardless. I don't know if it's ethno-politics; I don't know what we're seeing here, Mr. Chairman, but we have a very bad bill, and I've talked at length about why it's a bad bill.
There are members on both sides of the House, Mr. Chairman, who are of Italian descent, but this bill did not seek to bring people together. It did not. It was made without consultation. We had an agreement coming forward as a government with the CHRP program, and this bill seeks to go right around it. In fact, it seeks to disregard it. So by shutting down debate on the issue and by suggesting that members on this side shouldn't be able to speak and speak freely on it, well, in my view that's an admission that they have an indefensible bill that should not be passed by this House of Commons, that is not reflective of the broader Italian-Canadian community. Frankly, I believe it never should have gotten to this point for a number of reasons, not the least of which is it incurs cost to the Government of Canada and should have required a royal recommendation.
I don't know if other members on this side of the table want to speak as to why they feel they should have the opportunity to continue to debate this bill, but I think this is a low point.