Mr. Speaker, here we are again with a government that finds the democratic process inconvenient and a problem for its legislative agenda. After an exhaustive six and a half hours of debate on this bill, the Conservatives are moving time allocation once again, for the 28th time since they came to power as a majority government.
One would think that being a majority government would allow the Conservatives enough confidence to actually have the conversation with Canadians in the House. However, lo and behold, 28 times later they have shut down debate, just using this one tool of time allocation, never mind their other abuses of power in Parliament.
The question for the government is simple: What are they afraid of? Why are they so fearful of a conversation about a bill that they claim to have such pride in and to be of such necessity? After just six and a half hours, they are again shutting down members of Parliament from all sides and our ability to do one simple thing, to hold the government to account and to be representative of the people who elected us and put us in the chamber.
Why is there such addiction to time allocation, to censure of Parliament, to the bullying tactics and the abuse of Parliament that the government has become so prone to using over these short years?