Mr. Speaker, I will use the same word my colleague used: “irony”. I find it especially ironic today to hear the Conservatives become the great defenders of institutions, parliamentary freedom, democracy and committees.
I was here for the nine years that former Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper was in power. I saw more than a hundred closure motions. The Conservatives prevented debate in the House, systematically put the committees in camera and prevented federal government scientists from speaking freely to the media.
Today we must have cool heads and think about what we can do to adapt to the circumstances of this pandemic we are in.
We will continue to sit four days a week until June 18, as we normally would more or less. In fact, sittings were added to the summer schedule and we will be able to sit and ask the government questions. That is progress because we usually do not sit in the summer.