Mr. Speaker, it is unfortunate that I cannot give the speech I wanted to give today because the government has just invoked a form of closure, something that its members spoke out against very strongly in the last Parliament. I am going to speak out against that very thing right now.
Canadians feel very strongly about the whole issue of gun control. In particular, many people across the country are opposed to the whole idea of registration.
In my judgment, this is an extremely cynical and political move. Just before a break when MPs are going back to their ridings to consult with their constituents, the government invokes a form of closure. This prevents Canadians from having the full input and type of discussion they should have on an issue which is so important to them. The government is playing politics with this issue and I want to speak about that in a larger context right now.
As I mentioned, people feel very strongly about this issue. The country in many respects is split along rural and urban lines. I can see this whole issue being extremely divisive down the road if it is not handled properly.
That is why Reform has offered a very good reasoned amendment to split the bill in two. It would give people a chance to vote on the proposals that would bring in tougher sentences for crimes committed with the illegal use of firearms. That is something many Canadians agree with.
Where people differ from the government is on the whole idea of registration. If the government was going to be absolutely fair about this, it would recognize that there are two separate issues here and Canadians should have a right to vote on them separately.
I want to talk for a moment about the whole process leading up to where we are today. As a starting point, before the govern-
ment brings forward a piece of legislation which is so controversial and about which people care very deeply, I believe it is reasonable that the onus be put on the government to explain where the evidence is that points to registration being an effective way to curb crime.
We have asked many questions in this House on that issue. We have asked the justice minister on several occasions for the evidence. All he could do, as people would say when talking in a logic class, was make an appeal to authority, a false argument, that the police chiefs say it is a good thing to do, but there is no evidence. We have made that point over and over again. That is a very cynical move.
It is also very cynical how the whole consultation process was carried out. The minister did have some meetings with some groups over the course of the summer, which is great. However, when these meetings occur certainly there has to be some room for compromise. We cannot go in there with the attitude that we are not going to bend at all.
It got worse than that. After a while the meetings were by invitation. That is very cynical. People wanted to have a say but the minister said: "No, some people cannot come into these meetings because we want to make sure that things go our way". After that there is this omnibus legislation where the government tries to sell the good with the bad. Again, that is very cynical and very political and we absolutely disagree with that.
The final straw is time allocation right before a break. In this place, of all places, we should be talking about very important issues and MPs should be free to go back and talk about these things before they are set in stone. Unfortunately, members have been denied that opportunity because the government has invoked a form of closure.
We have spoken out time and time again on this issue. We have asked the government to produce the evidence that this will have an effect on crime. We have said that if it could produce the evidence it would have our support. However, the government cannot so we will not support it. That concludes my remarks.