What I wanted to do, Mr. Speaker, was reflect on the irony that back to work legislation sometimes brings to this place. It seems to me, having been through a number of these back to work legislation debates, that Parliament is both at its worst and at its best in these back to work debates. It is at its worst because we see a tendency on the part of the government to want to bring out the heavy procedural artillery.
The government was prepared yesterday to move a motion, Motion No. 8, which really amounted to a form of super closure. On reflection, all opposition parties and perhaps even the government, would want to reflect on the ultimate receivability and appropriateness of such motions.
We have ordinary procedures for dealing with legislation, ordinary procedures which provide for various forms of time allocation and agreement among the parties. Yet when we get into a situation of back to work legislation, all of a sudden all of that is suspended. What was sad yesterday was that certain of the opposition parties were willing to let their rights be trampled in this way without so much as even asking for something in return.
We objected but we were in a position where we were trying to come to an agreement with the government in order to make sure that this back to work legislation, as unacceptable as it is, would be better than it might otherwise have been had we not entered into negotiations with the government. We have an understanding that a certain amendment of ours with respect to the mandate of the mediator-arbitrator will be accepted when we get to committee of the whole. The legislation as a result will be much fairer.
That does not take away from the fact that Motion No. 8 as it was presented and ultimately carried by the government is a form of super-duper closure to which all of us should take great offence. Not enough offence was taken yesterday in the context of what went on.
I guess that is the only thing I will get a chance to say because I see you rising, Mr. Speaker. That is unfortunate because there is much more I would like to contribute to the debate.