Mr. Speaker, I was in the House last session when Liberals were in opposition and we moved a motion to speed this debate up to give us that time, and it was defeated. I do not think it is our privilege now, having already gone to the Supreme Court and asked for an extension, to prolong other people's suffering. We have a responsibility to act.
This issue has been in front of us for a lot longer than the bill has been in front of us; the committee spent time on it and did extraordinary work exploring this issue and laying the groundwork for the legislation; and there was work done in the previous Parliament, although not nearly fast enough.
The issue is that we have to accept, as parliamentarians, that we do not produce perfect legislation. We never will. We are just people giving it our best effort. On this bill, where a free vote has been offered to all parliamentarians on this side of the House, and I assume on the other side, we are in the position of trying to make this work. The deadline we have been given by the Supreme Court is the right decision.
It is time to act. It is time to end the suffering for some and provide clarity for others, so I do not think the responsible thing to do is to ask for a delay. We must make a decision, and then we must revisit this issue when problems arise again, because, as surely as we stand here today, they will.