Madam Speaker, I feel very fortunate to rise to speak to this issue today. Unfortunately, as you mentioned, I will not have the full time. I was hoping to speak fully on the issue, especially on behalf of the constituents who have continuously contacted me in my office with their concerns over the issue. I feel unfortunate for those members who have no ability to speak to the bill because of the closure that was forced upon us by the Liberal government.
An issue of this importance should not be forced through closure, as has been done today. This needs to be fully debated to the fullest extent. I am appalled at the other side for what it has done to us here. We need to fully consider all the implications of what is being presented in the bill. There are so many details missing in the definitions and in the possibilities down the road.
I want to relate a personal story here that expresses why I am so concerned about what is missing and why I want to ensure all the safeguards possible are put in place in the bill.
A few years ago, I had the honour and the burden of being the authorized representative for my mother in the final years of her life. Her health was gradually degrading through dementia and diabetes, to the point where it was getting difficult to have just a regular conversation with her. In fact, in the final few months it got to the point where she knew what a telephone was, but she did not know to answer it when it rang, or how to dial it anymore. Having done that for decades, she could no longer associate what to do with the telephone.
After three or four months of that, just before Christmas she became quite ill with the flu. We were not sure if she was going to be able to pull through or not. Whatever that illness did to her in her state of dementia, we are not sure. However, we were fortunate enough to visit with her on Boxing Day. We went in to see her. She had fully fluent and cohesive conversations with us. Not only that, earlier in the day she had picked up the telephone and phoned every one of my five siblings, dialing their phone numbers from memory. That was something she had not been able to do for months.
Right now, many people will look at dementia and some of these degenerative diseases as being incurable, but that day, that very short period of time proved to me that it is not always the case.
Therefore, when we are considering Bill C-14, every last one of us as members of Parliament really need to consider this because we are making a decision that is going to impact not just us in the House but the physicians and caregivers out there dealing with these patients, and with possibly many lives down the road.
I am appalled that we have closure on this today. I certainly hope that what goes to committee and what comes back does not open the floodgates to all the dangerous slippery slopes we see down the road.