I want to keep it brief, because I really don't want to take time away from the witnesses.
I do not buy the argument that once one person has said something, nobody else can repeat it. If that were the case, we would never have parliamentary democracy. We would get one speaker from each side, and then everybody could go home. But that's not how parliamentary democracy works. We all get elected as parliamentarians to represent our constituents. We're here representing the official opposition as well.
So out of all respect, I need to say that. I want to stress that I didn't bring this here lightly. I gave it a lot of consideration.
Out of respect for our witnesses, I don't plan to talk out the clock. That wouldn't be fair to our witnesses. But I can tell you that I have so much to say on this issue, and on the way this is being rushed through, that I could talk for a very, very long time and not repeat myself.
Let me again stress that to hear witnesses over two and a half hours, with one hour to do clause-by-clause, all within the same week, when amendments have to be in long before the witnesses have finished, really seems to me to be a little bit of a mockery of the parliamentary system, and especially of the role of the committee.