This motion is being presented to this committee as though it somehow advances the rights of people who are members of Parliament in my position, that being a member of a party with fewer than 12 MPs, or an independent MP. It is in fact exactly the contrary. It is all about an abuse of power by a majority party to restrict the rights of smaller parties.
In the last Parliament, members of the Liberal Party and members of the New Democratic Party voted against this very same motion restricting the rights of people in my position, people who are members of a party with fewer than 12 MPs.
As for the origins of this, to go back to it briefly, the ability to present amendments at report stage used to be unrestricted for any member of Parliament, but in 1999 the Reform Party brought forward over 700 amendments. They were mostly frivolous and dilatory, but their intention was to stall the Nisga'a treaty.
It took a couple of years for the governing party of the day, the majority Liberals of the day, to change the rules to say that if you, as member of Parliament, had an opportunity to put forward a motion, an amendment, in committee, you did not have the right to put forward an amendment at report stage. Just to repeat that, members of recognized parties at that stage had the rules changed so that you could not put forward a substantive amendment at report stage because you had a right as a member of a committee. That meant that those of us in smaller parties who can't sit on committees as full members still had this right to bring forward a substantive amendment at report stage.
I think I'm the only MP who ever discovered that this was the case, and I used it in the 41st Parliament to bring forward important amendments. As I said before, my rights in this regard were supported by the Liberals and the New Democrats.
In the fall of 2013, the Conservative majority brought forward this new idea. Rather than change the rules as we find them under O'Brien and Bosc, every single committee passed an identical motion. The effect of this was that I and all members of Parliament in my situation would then be invited to show up to committee. This was really coercion, not invitation. I would present amendments, sometimes with 60 seconds to defend my amendment, and was not allowed to answer questions about it after the fact.
The effect was that if two committees were meeting at the same time at clause-by-clause, which often happens, I'd be running from committee to committee to try to meet the invitation from committees to get my amendments in and considered. It is an enormous imposition of additional work for the sole purpose of depriving members of Parliament from smaller parties of being able to present amendments at report stage.
It's an abuse of power, and I have to say that it's heartbreaking to see it being done again. Such motions by the committee die at the end of every Parliament, which is why every single committee is being asked today to pass the former majority Conservative motion through committee. I would beg of you: please don't pass this motion.