Mr. Speaker, my question for the hon. Minister of Justice is this. He claims there are ample opportunities. All members of the House are equal, at least in theory, but whenever there is time allocation—and this particular administration has used time allocation, smashing through all historical records of any administration in the history of this country—it inevitably means that representatives of smaller parties, such as me as leader of the Green Party, or members of the Bloc Québécois, or independent members of Parliament, are not given any speaking slots whatsoever.
As egregious as it is for my friend from Esquimalt—Juan de Fuca to anticipate that he would not be able to speak, at least members of his party will have spoken. As egregious as it is for my friend from Esquimalt—Juan de Fuca that he might not be able to speak, at least he could speak at committee, whereas members in our situation are precluded from speaking in committee, in any committee; and when there was an opportunity put forward by the NPD in the procedure and House affairs committee recently, the Conservatives defeated it.
Our constituents are equal to the constituents of any Conservative member of Parliament, but our constituents are denied an opportunity to participate when time allocation is used.