Madam Chair, as I was saying, the recent Ontario Superior Court decision struck down amendments that were made to the Canada Elections Act. This is deeply concerning for me, because there's quite a bit of misinformation that seems to be circulating. I've seen quite a lot of attention on this issue. We need to start looking at this, within an elections process, if deliberately false statements are being put out by parties within an election process. I know Mr. Blaikie was reported in the media recently as being in support of this study. I had put a motion on notice. This would be a better use of our time. I digress and I'll move back to speaking to the amendment.
I have lots to say about the amendment that I've put forward, providing rationale and justification for that amendment.
First off, from the last two meetings, I've been making a real effort to articulate an argument that substantiates the reasons for prorogation. You'll probably remember, for those of you who were at those meetings, that I've been saying very clearly that a global pandemic is a good reason for proroguing Parliament. If not, then what is? When I look back at prorogations in the past, it's very clear that there were lesser reasons cited. There were recessions that were blips compared to what we're experiencing today.
With that said, I want to further my argument. We've heard from multiple opposition parties numerous times that they think the throne speech lacked substance and basically didn't include anything new. I beg to differ on that front. Actually, I should state it more strongly. I emphatically disagree with that statement. The throne speech was constructed based on evidence, research and data that was provided by the chief statistician of Canada, and a very robust consultation process that was undertaken by the government.