You might speak on another motion, but you won't speak on this one. They'll move a motion that denies that, don't worry.
Again, consistent with the process that we've followed so far, once again we see the tyranny of the majority. There is a reason that this expression exists. This is an example of it: when the majority, who gets to decide things, completely disregards the minority and just runs roughshod over them, standing behind the fig leaf of “well, we have a majority”. In a democracy, that's not the same as being given the position of king or ruler. There is an obligation in a democracy for the majority to be respectful of the minority. That's what this country is predicated on. This country is predicated on that. The government...most of the backbenchers really don't know what's going on anyway, and those who do are just tickled that they get to be part of steamrolling over people they don't like. That would be us and, in this case, the Canadian people.
Because we had an agenda today. I'm not raising the point; I'm in debate. But I'm talking about the fact that the notice we had read “11:00 to 1:00”. I have said all along that the government will get their way because they have a majority and they're prepared to use it as a tyranny and just ram whatever they want, no matter what anybody says. That's the tyranny of the majority, and that's where we are right now.
We all get notices. There's the notice of the agenda. It's very straightforward, and it says that right on there: “11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.” We've respected that at every meeting, but it's now being used as a game, and that's my point. It's being used as a game to counter the motion.
Remember the evil motion that I have before us, Chair. It's to do that horrible, unbelievable thing, that irresponsible thing, of asking Canadians if they'd like to have a say on their election law where they live. That's the outrageousness of the motion that the government is prepared to use every technical advantage they can on, every hairsplitting ruling they can. Then, when necessary, when they can't win on that, they just swoop in with their majority and shut everything down. That's what's going to happen. The government will give no more consideration for the concerns of the minority—in this case, the opposition members—than they will for Canadians, who they're also giving the back of their hand to.
All of it could be avoided. That's the thing of it, Chair. It could have been avoided. It could still be avoided. The government could still push the reset button if they said to us, “Look, we're into a heck of a mess here, and we'd like to start over if we can and see if we can't approach this differently.” There's still time to do that. If the government came to us and said, for instance—I don't know—that we'll go into the House, we'll seek unanimous consent, and with the unanimous consent of the House we will revert to first reading, and at first reading we will do what we should have done in the first place, which was to have referred it directly to the committee without a second reading. We can just null and void it all. We can do anything with unanimous consent. Not only could the government have done the right thing from the beginning, but they still could. They have no intention of that, none.
Before the government rolled in with their latest abuse of majority power, I made the case in saying that they were going to utilize that majority to ram, ram, ram, and that the criticism they get is worth it, because it's the price that they will pay to get an election law that favours them and favours those who have money. It takes powers away from the Chief Electoral Officer, who has been going after this government for things they have been doing in violation of the current election law. That's what's going on.
So is it any wonder that we're getting a little angry over here? Oh, yes. Oh yes, no one should be surprised that this is happening. Then, just to add insult to injury, because they just don't care.
That's the point: they don't care. And the ones who do care over there are just keeping their heads down low. Why? Because they're also thinking, “This advantages me because I'm part of the majority. I'm with the Conservatives. I may not really understand everything that's going on, but I do understand that my chances of getting re-elected just went up.”
This they understand. When the whip cracks that whip—