Mr. Speaker, the hon. member is referring to a separate incident from the one I brought forward at a previous date because of a series of events that continues to happen in the committee.
The Speaker has asked for us to wait for the report to the House. The problem is when incidents such as the one the hon. member for Elk Island has mentioned come up in committee and we ask it even to be reported to the House we are told it will not be reported to the House. We not only cannot debate but we cannot introduce amendments, we cannot ask questions of witnesses, we cannot in some cases even vote.
Then when the votes happen sometimes they are overturned by the hammer of the chairman. Then when we raise these issues and say could it not be reported to the House we are told no. Then they appeal to the committee and the committee says it will not report it.
We are at wits end. We cannot do any of the democratic roles of an opposition. We cannot do any of the things I have described, the legitimate role in opposition. When we want to
raise it for investigation or for future reference we are told we cannot even do that. We cannot do any of the roles given to us, privileges as members of Parliament. When we raise points of privilege we are told they will not even be reported to the Chair.
We are at wits end. We cannot fulfil our job, our duty and our responsibility to raise issues of great concern to Canadians. We really feel the Chair needs to intervene. This is the second case, I realize.
The transcripts are in. We could start to go over them. There is a serious breach of democratic rights. We must get it addressed before this committee continues.
To say we refuse now to attend is true. I cannot go to a committee in which the chairman says I have no rights and asks me to sit down.