Thank you very much, Madam Chair.
I want to thank Mr. Moore for his motion. I think it raises real issues, but I will not be supporting the motion.
Let me start by saying that I think the Senate amendments that have been sent to the House are inappropriate. The Senate's role has traditionally been to look for errors and omissions in the work that the House of Commons does, to give what has been called sober second thought and also to provide regional representation. I think what the Senate has done in this case completely exceeds its mandate. This is a result of the unilateral changes that the Liberals made in the composition of the Senate, so that the body is now completely not only unelected but also unaccountable. It has therefore now taken on a role of actually redoing work that the House of Commons has already done. On principle, I think it's wrong.
The specific amendment dealing with mental health I also think is wrong in the sense that this is an issue that was raised before our committee and that we did not add to the bill. I think it was a considered decision on the part of most of our members that this issue is far more serious and involves a far larger expansion of medical assistance in dying than should be taken without full consideration. We heard from medical professionals that the protocols do not exist for us to deal with medical assistance in dying and the issue of mental health. It would take some time to develop those.
That would make you think I'm going to vote in favour of this motion, but I'm not, because I believe what's happening is that the Bloc and Liberals have come together on the closure motion and they're going to force this through Parliament today, by this evening. The joint House and Senate committee that has been set up will be able to deal with this question and is supposed to start work expeditiously, within 30 days of royal assent. At this point we have little choice, to avoid both confusion and duplication, but to let that joint committee do its work.
Thank you.