Madam Speaker, it is indeed a serious problem for our democracy when private members' bills that are sometimes passed unanimously by this House have been held up indefinitely in the Senate. The Senate is supposed to provide that sober second thought, not sit on bills without providing any thought to them just to prevent them from passing.
In the last Parliament, we had the international human rights act, Bill C-281, brought forward by my colleague from what was then Northumberland—Peterborough South. That bill was indefinitely delayed, probably because the government did not want it to pass, even though its members were afraid to vote against it. It was passed unanimously in the House and blocked in the Senate. These were important human rights measures that many people were behind. Changes need to be made so that this does not happen again.