Mr. Peter Julian (Burnaby—New Westminster, NDP): Mr. Speaker, it is a sad day in the House. This is the 92nd time the government has imposed time allocation or closure on important legislation.
Just in comparison, the previous government in Canadian history did it less than a third as often as this government has, almost 100 times imposing time allocation and closure.
This comes after one day of debate on this important issue. As the leader of the official opposition said last week, there is no more serious question than to decide to send our women and men in uniform into a situation where they could well be giving their lives, and yet the government, after one day, is saying, “Enough debate, we just want to ram this thing through�.
There is a reason for this. It is quite simple. With Bill C-51, the more debate there has been, even at the committee level, the less Canadians have liked Bill C-51. We have seen a majority of Canadians now go to a majority of Canadians opposed to Bill C-51. There is no doubt on this particular motion. As debate is furthered, Canadians become clear on what the government has tried to pull over the Canadian public, the whoppers that have been told and the fact that our humanitarian aid is scant compared to the nearly $1 billion the government wants to put into bombs.
Is that not really why this is happening today? The government does not want the debate because it is afraid the facts that this debate will expose.