I didn't mean to be implying personal disrespect. I should be clear about that. I hope that's understood.
The fact is that there's a process, a process we are working on. We took everybody else's word. We each took each other's word on the sincerity of that process, and that got tossed out. The fact is that the opposition has a majority here. The Liberals don't have a majority, to be clear about that, but the opposition does. If they want to pass something through, they can do it. The real point is that the Conservatives don't have a majority, either here or in the House. They can't actually stop anything, especially something that is quite probably a very reasonable proposal, if the other parties are united on this.
What I'm objecting to is this: we have processes that are designed to ensure fairness to all parties, and that's getting tossed out the window here. That is objectionable. Now I come to the part that relates back to Mr. Proulx's point when he said this reminded him of the in-and-out scandal and the discussion, the filibuster, that went on for weeks and weeks—indeed, I think for months—in this committee on that subject. I was a part of that. I want to be clear about it. I wasn't just talking; I was filibustering. I was talking for the point of talking out the clock to make sure we could not come to a conclusion. That was my purpose.
At one point, as you may recall, the chair of the committee had been thrown out--not just challenged, but actually dismissed, which is something that happens.... I don't know; how often does that happen? Is it once in a decade, once every 20 years? It was extraordinary. It was for doing nothing wrong, other than getting in the way of the will of the majority on the committee.
Then the attempt was made to put you in the chair to force us to continue hearing and to start at that point to toss the rules out the window in order to get the outcome they wanted, the outcome being to treat this so-called scandal as if it were a real scandal and to have a kangaroo court in which members of the Conservative Party would be hauled in with none of the normal procedural protections and raked over the coals in order to give the media perception of guilt. I opposed that very strongly, because it was a grotesque abuse.