Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for her question.
As I mentioned earlier, we did a pre-study. It was not a real study of the bill. This is a lack of respect for standard procedures. In fact, they put a time limit on debate. We were denied the opportunity to hear more witnesses, very credible witnesses such as Amnesty International or UNICEF, for example.These organizations could not appear before the committee because, again, of the insufficient time provided by the Conservatives.
What is even more frustrating is that the government did not even listen to the witnesses that we were able to hear during the very limited time allowed by the government. It is one thing to invite witnesses and ask them to speak, but it is too easy to then wash one's hands of whole thing and say there was consultation. Was that consultation serious? We heard witnesses, but did we really listen to them? Did we take them seriously?
They all had important recommendations to make to improve the bill. They were concerned about human rights and the constitutionality of the bill. However, the Conservatives did not even listen to them, and that is very frustrating.