Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for Okanagan—Coquihalla for the question and I particularly thank him for the tone. Often we get into evening debates and things can get a little bit sharp-edged around here and elbows could come up. I appreciate the tone and I appreciate the question.
I would first say to the hon. member that, when members are on the government side, they always suggest everything is non-partisan, and they often see it that way, but when members are on the opposition benches, they are not as quick to say it is non-partisan so it could only be good. I just offer up that different perspective.
I would also mention to him that the co-chair of the current committee, my colleague from Hamilton Mountain, of whom I am very proud, said in relation to the bill:
The Conservatives have used ambulatory incorporation by reference—
which goes along with the static and the reference to legal terms
—170 times since 2006. Bill S-12 is essentially designed to give the government legal cover after the fact for its prior and ongoing illegal activities. Put differently and more specifically, proposed section 18.7 would retroactively validate a large number of provisions that were made without lawful authority.
It seems to me, if nothing else, a question like this coming from one of the co-chairs deserves to be answered.