Madam Speaker, I appreciate the question of the member for Peace River. He is very right. Numerous letters from Canadians constantly remind us that we had input into the treaty that was signed at a UN conference somewhere in the world. We could talk about Kyoto. We could talk about Cairo. We could talk about many international agreements that have been signed, including the MAI.
These agreements are done in secret. Canadians are never consulted about them until after the fact when they are asked to ratify them. We have some that do not really represent the Canadian interest. Yet they are signed, sealed and delivered on behalf of Canadians. I guess the big concern is about how much negotiation went on for the space station. We do not know anything about that. It was all done behind closed doors.
Then there was something, as the member mentioned, that put doubt in our minds, the Nisga'a agreement. That is just the tip of the iceberg of how the government treats its citizens when it thinks it can ram through with four hours and 12 minutes of debate something that will affect not only the people here but our children and our grandchildren and will result in a disruption in the country like we have never seen before.
Why would we take a race based policy, one that is not based on equality of people, entrench it in the constitution and create a future for us that will be just what we are seeing in Atlantic Canada now, what we have seen in B.C. and the comments we are hearing in our constituencies? Why would we create something like that without clearly opening it up to the public? What is the government afraid of that it has to use closure and shut things down?
It is despicable. B.C. had four months of debate and then used closure. Here we had four hours. How can that be called democracy? How can the Liberals say it is even a semblance of democracy? Perception is everything.
They expect us to stand and rubber stamp an agreement. Whether we rubber stamp the space agency agreement or the Nisga'a agreement they will use closure. They use closure like they change their socks. It is just the way they run this place. It is a dictatorship and the perception out there is that there is a level of arrogance. They will not even open the House and let us debate, let people hear what are the issues, and let us look at them all.
This is just like the last parliament with the Tories running things: close shop, shut the door, use closure, do not listen to people, do not consult anyone and control the witnesses who come forward. That is exactly how the government is operating.
Now we hear that as the committees travel they will not be able to call the witnesses they want. It will be a select group, a closed door. They will just hear from witnesses that are friendly to government policy. What kind of democracy is that? I hope Canadians will demand the government to change the way it treats its citizens.