Order. Order, please.
Colleagues, as you know, when a committee is having some difficulty with order or decorum, the chair has two options—only two. One is simply to sit there and wait until the situation calms itself. The second is to bang the gavel and suspend the meeting to the call of the chair. I have resisted suspending the meeting to get order in this meeting, simply because it delays the time that we have to get to the work of the committee, which is hearing from witnesses.
Mr. Goodyear, this is not bafflegab, sir.
Colleagues, for the second time in these hearings, I have provided Mr. Goodyear with the reference in Marleau and Montpetit that provides the chair the discretion to take a decision based on whether or not it is clearly an immediate matter, and I've given that ruling. Mr. Goodyear has challenged my reading of Marleau and Montpetit and my statements. As a consequence, as you know, that is not debatable, and I must put it to a vote immediately.
So, Madam Clerk, the question is, shall the decision of the chair be sustained, and I would ask you to call the roll, please.
(Ruling of the chair sustained: yeas 6; nays 5)