Okay, thank you, Chair; I appreciate that.
I would like to start out on a harmonious note. Who knows, maybe at the end of two hours we'll be right back to a harmonious note. I have my doubts, but hope springs eternal.
Chair, you stated at the outset that you were hoping we could get to business today. I want you to know that the official opposition shares that desire. But, sir, what is not going to happen is any backing away from this motion, unless and until the government comes to its senses and agrees to negotiate.
I want to state again, as I have said at this televised committee, have said on the floor of the House of Commons, and say again to the government representatives across from me, that this is not the fight we want. Process is not what we think we should be spending most of our time on; we should be focusing on the bill. But in a democracy, process matters. It matters in terms of who gets a say and when they get that say in the process. The rules of the game: that's where we are right now.
To continue with our analogies of these days, the government wants us to just hit the ice and start playing, but we haven't determined what the rules of the game are, so how can that be?
Chair, I might just acknowledge that Leadnow is walking into the room, a leading civics group who have serious concerns. Today, they've tabled with us almost 54,000 signatures of Canadians who also care about this issue, who want their say in their laws and their elections. I want to commend Leadnow for their news conference this morning and for their efforts and for being here representing those so far almost 54,000 Canadians—that's a beginning—who are indicating, now that the Olympics are over, that this is important.
We know it was not a coincidence that the government introduced the budget during the winter Olympics—earlier than usual—and a major overhaul of our election laws and a major overhaul of our immigration laws, all while the winter Olympics were on.
There is not a Canadian out there gullible enough to believe that this was a coincidence. It was not a coincidence; it was deliberate. It was an attempt to have the important issues that are now before us distracted by the Olympics. The government plan was that by the time people returned to everyday issues and got a sense of what was happening, this would have been rammed through. We saw that in the House.
I remind members that the government was making speeches in the House on their motion to shut down debate—think about it: to shut down debate, in a democratic country, on a bill that deals with democracy, and the first thing they do is muzzle democracy. The arguments they used, Chair, as you'll recall, were that the House stuff is not that important; that what really matters is when we get to committee, because that's where we roll up our sleeves and get to work and do the work.
We didn't buy that and we voted against the notion that the House of Commons should stop debating the bill. But the government has a majority, so they got their way. Now here we are at committee, and the first thing the official opposition asked, with the support of the third party, is that we have public hearings that go outside the safety and security of the Ottawa bubble. It looked as if the government might be interested—there were some discussions—but then that iron curtain came down, and I was told that those conversations are over. So here we are.
I say again to the government that in 30 minutes I think we could resolve this; we could negotiate an agreement. I don't expect, Chair, that we would get everything we asked for; neither should the government expect that they would get everything they asked for. But with both parties putting a little water in their wine, we can get there. I don't know how much more reasonable an official opposition can be to the government on a major bill than to suggest that there are negotiations that could be had that would allow us to get off the process debate and start dealing with such things as witnesses and what cities we will go to and who we will hear there and how long we will meet here.
The government is already at “push, push, push”; everything is a panic. Now it's a big rush. They were supposed to come back with this bill months and months ago—