Mr. Speaker, it is always an honour to rise for the great people in Simcoe—Grey.
I am presenting a petition on behalf of a local constituent, a young gentleman who has been quite dismayed with the current state of democracy in our Canada. His petition states that “Under the ‘rights of information act’ (1985)”, every person who is a Canadian citizen, or a permanent resident, “‘has a right to and shall, on request, be given access to any record under the control of a government institution.’” The petition also says, “Canadian democracy relies on government clarity.”
The petition goes on to say that on April 29 during a health committee meeting, the new government majority voted to shut off public recordings of the meeting, going in camera and restricting public access to speeches, interviews and comments from MPs. It says that the Prime Minister has “openly attempted and successfully poached opposition MPs against the wishes of their constituents”, that the current Prime Minister is the first Canadian prime minister to gain a majority government through backdoor deals rather than through votes, and that one of the Prime Minister's first acts with his “manufactured majority” was to “stack” parliamentary committees in order to gain control.