I understood that we had ruled that we would hear witnesses. However, it is quite clear that we need 48 hours' time from reference for individuals, independent members, to have an opportunity to submit amendments. That 48 hours has not been respected.
I'll point out that we have already had an occasion where the consideration that took place today was done in violation of the rules, the vote having been put while I was still speaking on the floor, without giving committee members here the opportunity to hear why I felt that members of the public would be denied the opportunity to appear. We now know that several members of the public who wanted to appear did not have the opportunity to appear. We've had that violation of the rules. We've had this witness's period of time to discuss this, that was on our agenda, cut short. Now we are proceeding with yet another violation of the rules that I'm hearing proposed, that we proceed to clause-by-clause study notwithstanding that we aren't respecting the rules that this very committee has adopted.
How many ways do we have to break the rules to jam this thing through? As I think I said quite clearly, when we think of the member who is sponsoring this bill, the very last thing he would have wanted was that we trample all over the rules of Parliament and this institution and what it means in order that this bill pass. That's a heck of a way to taint his legacy. I do not think it's what he had in mind.