Madam Speaker, I really do regret that the member for Calgary Northeast spoiled what could have been an excellent speech, which began as an excellent speech, on a historic piece of legislation by toeing his party line and obeying his whip to divert the debate to a discussion of time allocation on the Nisga'a treaty. The member for Calgary Northeast is well known for his interest in the law and legal matters.
We have before us a piece of legislation that truly is very historic in ways that go far beyond just the recitation of technology or the recitation of advancements in science. We have legislation before us that is an advancement in human organization, the advancement in democracy and the advancement in law. We have legislation that for the first time ever applies the laws of Canada not just outside of Canada but out of this world. For the first time ever, the law applies not just on the space capsule and among the spacemen, but the law applies to any vehicle that separates from the space station.
The reason this is so significant is because it takes the human spirit that is represented in our political institutions, and more than that in our legal institutions, and for the first time ever it has taken the law out of this world. That may sound trivial to some members but it is an enormous step. Symbolically, it means that the human spirit has passed the boundaries of geography, has passed the boundaries of city states, of the political states of the world and has actually entered into interplanetary space.
In 1,000 years or 500 years from now, humanity will look back at this moment and this piece of legislation, where it moves the law and mankind outside of the world, as a turning point in the history of all humankind.