I think Mr. Christopherson and Mr. Julian articulated well the basis of the government's intentions here, and also the awful nature with which the process has been used. Changing the way we make laws in Canada and in our Parliament without a bit of evidence or argument coming from the government should give everybody pause, and in fact suspicion, including members of the government. When someone brings forward an idea to change things fundamentally and won't back it up, one should be a bit worried: “Please, buy my car. Can I test drive it? No. What's the price? I can't tell you; just buy the car.” Most Canadians would walk out of that dealership.
Most Canadians are looking at the shortcuts this government has taken around the inconveniences of democracy—the omnibus bill, stuffing the Senate, and on down the list—and seeing that it all comes back. It's a remarkable natural fact in democracy.
I believe, Chair, this comes out of the discomfort the government had around C-38, their omnibus bill, which was in and of itself an abuse of power in ramming so many things together and pretending they were all one thing and then trying to ram it through Parliament. The fact was one of the independents in Parliament who could not present at a committee, Madam A, then used her privileges to move amendments in the House that ended up causing the government some discomfort because they had to sit there and vote over and over again. I think you remember it well, Chair.
The fact of the matter is the government could avoid all of this mess if they started to actually pay attention and respect our democratic institutions, this place itself. All of these things start to go away because there is decency.
We had a time allocation motion moved this morning, Chair, on a bill in the House that was meant to be debated for five days, which we had agreed to debate for five days. The government's next action was to shut down the debate in five days. It's evidence-based decision-making gone to decision-based evidence-making.
There's no evidence for this argument. Changing laws on the fly is dangerous. We're deeply concerned with what the government is doing. We will resist its attempt to do this.