Mr. Speaker, I certainly meant no disrespect by raising an issue that had been dealt with by the House. I could refer just as easily to many times in the past when this word has been used as a means of closing down debate.
Many times members of our party have been standing here, engaged in honest, open debate, trying to get our point of view across. We want to hear the opposition's point of view. We need that open debate, not just here in the House but across the country. So often debate has been closed down by members of the governing party hanging labels on us. That is unacceptable. It is a practice that hurts. It does not just hurt us, it hurts the people who are hanging these labels that end debate. It hurts democracy more than it hurts anything else.
In this country we must be allowed to have open and honest debate. Canadians expect that.
With regard to the harmonization bill, it is not going to get the government off the hook and the amendments are not going to fix the bill. No amendment could fix this bill. The promise must be kept.