There's no such thing as a point of personal privilege, Mr. Chair, and it certainly does not take precedence by interrupting a point of order. I have the floor on the point of order.
He has insulted the drafter of this bill, who has every right, as a member of the House of Commons and someone who, by the way, was sent to this chamber by the people of his riding, like we are all were. Dr. Ellis made a passionate invocation of democracy and why we're all here because of people, and he's right about that. Mr. Erskine-Smith has every right to put this bill.... He has already cast aspersions that Mr. Erskine-Smith wasn't actively promoting the bill, which is a slur against Mr. Erskine-Smith. He's not even here to defend himself.
This is outrageous what the Conservatives are doing: gumming up this health committee by preventing it from dealing with the business before us, which is a very important piece of private member's business that Mr. Erskine-Smith has every right to table and to have us consider.
If the Conservatives want to filibuster and prevent this committee from dealing with this legislation, then I guess we can't stop them, but what we can do is make sure they do it within the confines of the rules of this committee and the rules of Parliament, which are to speak with relevance to the matter under consideration. If they were not organized enough to put in amendments that would ground the kind of discussion they want to have, then that's a deficiency on their part. However, it is not permissible in this committee to allow a member to talk about all sorts of irrelevant issues beyond their own amendment.
I would ask that you call Dr. Ellis to order and have him wrap up his comments. Then we can vote on this section and move forward on this bill.