Mr. Speaker, I do not think the hon. member knows what the words transparent, open, honest or integrity mean because his speech was the exact opposite. It was very deceptive. I want to raise five issues that completely disprove what he said. The so-called democracy that those members say is here is being thwarted.
I served on a committee for private members' business. That committee operates behind closed doors. It is never open. It has never allowed private members' business to become votable.
I have put in over 267 access to information requests on one narrow topic alone. Sometimes it takes over one year for the information to come back and then it is out of date. That is not open and accountable government.
We do not have an ethics commissioner who is accountable to parliament. He is muzzled by the Prime Minister. That is not open and accountable government.
We do not have whistleblower legislation in this parliament whereby someone in the bureaucracy who sees a problem can come forward with it and have something done about it. Any democracy in the modern world has that kind of legislation, yet the government blocks that legislation.
We do not have a committee to examine the 5,000 different appointments to the bureaucracy. That is done behind closed doors. That is not open and accountable government.
The Prime Minister chooses when he will be a dictator and when he will be a democrat and unfortunately it is very seldom that he chooses to be a democrat. The whole system is designed to allow for corruption because there are no appropriate checks and balances in the system.