The members of the government party were trying to sell us a bill of goods earlier when they told us that they would refrain from making this committee excessively partisan and that they wanted everyone to work by consensus. The problem is that the same thing that happened in the last Parliament could also happen again as early as next week. If the government is unwilling to have the committee hear from witnesses on a particular subject, all it has to do is not show up for our meetings, and our committee will be paralyzed and completely unable to act. I've already lived through that very same situation. Even if the government says it has no intention of revisiting the past, to avoid a recurrence, I intend to vote against this amendment.
On November 25th, 2008. See this statement in context.