Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise to debate the motion introduced by the government.
The heavy handedness of the government goes beyond the pale in the way it thinks it can use its majority to impose its will not only in the House but right across the land. The motion introduced reads in part:
That, notwithstanding any Standing Order or usual practice of this House, the bill standing in the name of the President of the Treasury Board, entitled an act to provide for the resumption and continuation of government services, shall be disposed of as follows:
- Commencing when the said bill is read a first time and concluding when the said bill is read a third time, the House shall not adjourn—
They wanted us to give our consent, even before they had tabled the legislation, to rush the bill through first reading, second reading, third reading, hold our nose and presumably vote for it too without even having the courtesy of giving us the bill to tell us what they intended to do with the legislation. That type of attitude in this place cannot be tolerated and that is why the Reform Party says the government is very heavy handed.
We can think of other types of legislation that have been brought into the House.
I think of the hepatitis C debate we have had in the House wherein we talked about providing compassion and compensation for people who were infected with tainted blood. I have some people in my own riding, whom I know personally, that were tainted with hepatitis C. The member for Macleod is a physician and critic for the Reform Party on health matters. He has stated in the House many times that the government has an obligation to compensate these people because the Red Cross and those administering blood products were quite aware of the dangers in blood back in 1984 and before then. They had the capacity to test it and did nothing.
The government absolved itself of the responsibility. How did it do that? The Prime Minister cracked the whip and told everybody to get in line and support the legislation. Now it has taken it one step further. Now it is asking us to support the legislation before we even see the legislation. Surely that is too much.