Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I continue to hear debate that is not about the actual motion itself concerning the extension, which I'm going to speak to.
To clarify and for the record, we started this on June 11 at 8:45 a.m., and since that point in time only one Conservative has had the opportunity to speak at this committee. So if we are speaking about who has the ability to speak and who is being prevented from presenting their opinions and from representing their constituents, all of those arguments can be made by us over here. For each and every one of my government colleagues who sit on the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration, it's exactly the same. We've had one speaker.
Mr. Chair, I know you're back in the chair this morning, but the government has bent over backwards to allow members of both the NDP and Liberal Party to have their opportunity to speak to the extension. While Ms. Sims was the chair, she allowed, for example, Ms. Groguhé the opportunity to speak for more than nine and a half hours.
I'm not sure how the NDP is going to speak to the extension, when in fact they have overwhelmingly owned the majority of—not just the majority, but almost exclusively—the time to speak. When they just about ran out of time, they determined that they would introduce an amendment, which of course allowed the process to begin all over again.
Mr. Chair, we on the government side are finally having the chance to speak to the motion that we introduced. The motion itself is not about all the debate that took place here at the committee. That was agreed to. As you recall, Mr. Chair, we had a subcommittee meeting. We determined an outline. We determined a process. We determined how that process was going to follow through, and when clause-by-clause study was going to happen. All of this was agreed to by all members of this committee.
We acknowledge that the only piece that made us have to go back to the House came when we introduced our amendments, amendments that both Mr. Lamoureux and Ms. Sims and every member of the opposition on this committee requested almost each and every single day that we met as a committee. In fact, they were requested every single day: “Can we get those amendments? Can we get your amendments?” At that time, those amendments were critical to them, in terms of moving forward.
So in principle, I don't accept the argument that the request for the extension is due to the introduction of the amendments. That is not at question. In fact, when we agreed that the amendments would come forward at a particular time in the process, there was unanimous agreement as to when those amendments would come forward. I and all members of the opposition on the committee have made the point that I actually introduced them, through the clerk, before we were required to.
In so doing, we were giving the opposition the opportunity to review in a fulsome way the amendments we were presenting. We also had the opportunity to hear from our legal clerk whether those amendments fell within the scope of the bill. It was determined at that time—and we accept that determination, Mr. Chairman—that the amendments fell outside the scope of the bill. We accepted that. We didn't argue it. We tried to ensure that the decision made was one that was founded upon the correct Standing Orders, which we have in front of us. We determined that it was.
We then took the next step in this process, which was to move the motion here at committee that in the House we seek clarification, seek authority from the House of Commons to expand the scope of the bill so that we could deal with the amendments we had presented to this committee, amendments which we presented prior to actually having to submit them to the committee.
I then went into the House of Commons, as Mr. Shory did, during proceedings each and every day for over two weeks, in an attempt to introduce a motion for concurrence so that we could have that fulsome debate in the House of Commons.
I had assurances from our House leader and our whip that it would be given priority in the House of Commons and that we would be dealing with a motion for concurrence that would allow debate to take place for the expansion of Mr. Shory's bill, expansion, by the way, with his support of each and every amendment that was proposed by me.
In consultation, in discussion, in presentation, there isn't a time during this whole process that you will find one issue that Mr. Shory had with the introduction of these amendments. He is in full support. In fact, he has attended almost all of the meetings that have taken place at this committee. Every once in a while he does get subbed in, but for the most part he has sat as a listener and an observer of what was happening here at committee in terms of the filibuster that has been occurring by the New Democratic Party.
I tried, Mr. Chair, to stand up for almost two weeks during routine proceedings, after question period or at ten o'clock in the morning, depending on when routine proceedings came up, and each and every time, NDP members stood up and blocked my ability to present the motion for concurrence regarding expanding the scope of the bill.
When I hear members of the opposition position the issue of debate around how they are prevented from discussing this issue, or pushing this issue further, I look to each and every one of them, in particular the NDP. If they truly believed that the House of Commons is the place where democracy takes place and where they represent their constituents, and where they deliver messages on behalf of their party, and where they should be listened to because they deserve to be heard, then I would submit this to each one of them. Why on earth would they not let me stand in the House of Commons to present the proposal that this committee decided on democratically, upon discussion, upon review, and further to vote, that we would ask the House to give us the ability to expand the scope of the bill?
The only reason we were prevented from doing so, that I was prevented from presenting this in the House of Commons, was the New Democratic Party knew that a private member's bill, if not submitted prior to the 60-day expiration, would have to go to the House unamended. It was not for any democratic reason, not for the reasons that would sustain a discussion in the House of Commons, but simply to kill a private member's bill, thereby killing that individual's opportunity.
Backbenchers in the House of Commons do not have an opportunity very often, Mr. Chair, to introduce a piece of legislation they would hope would carry itself through and receive royal assent at the end of the process.
We then understood, based on the opposition's unwillingness to allow our democratic right to be heard, that we would have to come back to committee to seek an extension.
I duly introduced the motion. I recall the first time we asked for the extension. Mr. Lamoureux, effectively, and as is his right as a member of the committee, agreed we were going to sit until 10:45 and he talked out the clock. Therefore, we couldn't debate the motion of the extension at that time. We would have to do so at the next meeting.
Well, Mr. Chair, you were not at that meeting. You had Ms. Sims, who is our vice-chair, take the chair and we actually had to challenge her, and win a challenge to sustain discussion on the extension. To me, I guess, it was her prerogative as chair and she had a right to do it.
I witnessed her chairmanship last week. She may have come to the corners on breaking the rules, but she did her best to try to do everything, perhaps bending them, but certainly staying within them.
That led to the opportunity of only one of the committee members on this side of the House who could actually speak to the.... In fact, it was actually only at a point when we were dealing with an amendment that we were able to speak. It was not actually to the main motion. It was the first time in almost a week that the government—this side of the committee and obviously our side of the House in the chamber—had a chance to discuss the extension.
All we are seeking in terms of this extension is not to pass the private member's bill at third reading and send it over to the Senate, not to somehow put this piece of legislation in front of the priorities that are in the House of Commons right now, whether they be priorities of government or priorities of the opposition, but simply and very quickly in the House agree to a 30-day extension for Mr. Shory's private member's bill.
Mr. Chair, there are numerous hills to die on for the opposition when it comes to immigration, and I understand that. But to determine that a private member wouldn't be allowed to have their private member's bill be heard properly, be reviewed thoroughly, be voted on democratically is unacceptable.
It's unacceptable because the request.... When you look at how simple the request is for the extension.... This motion does not come with a 2,000 word essay. It doesn't come with any type of underlying strategy to have it circumvent the process that follows us through in the House of Commons under the Westminster model of Parliament. This extension is very simply, very directly, very efficiently, very effectively drawing us to the conclusion that Mr. Shory, a member of Parliament, duly elected, has the opportunity and has the right to have his private member's bill heard. He has the right to have his private member's bill discussed. He has the right to have his private member's bill voted on.
He does not and should not be forced into a corner to stand by helplessly as he watches an opposition party determine that because they don't like the bill, they have found a procedural reason to circumvent the process.
I've heard Ms. Sims. I'll quote her. Today she said it at 12:21 that they're not here just to speak for the sake of it. Then, not two minutes later, she said that they will use the tools at their disposal.
There is a big difference in having a determination that the direction a particular piece of legislation is taking that you don't like and don't agree with, that your party won't support, that you as an individual can't vote in favour of.... I agree. I may disagree with you in terms of how I vote, but I don't disagree with the fact that you have the right to object to a piece of legislation you don't believe in.
But when you say that you will use the tools at your disposal, that is a submission, in fact, I think it's a conviction, that what you are doing is circumventing the right of a private member's bill to move forward, the right of an individual to move his legislation forward when he is fully aware and understanding of the agreement—