Mr. Pat Martin (Winnipeg Centre, NDP)

Mr. Speaker, I am less interested in the speech that my colleague was given to read into the House of Commons today and more interested in hearing his views about the fact that the bill is labelled “S-4”, which means it did not originate in the House of Commons; it originated in the Senate.

In my view—and I would like the view of the member for Elmwood—Transcona, to see if he agrees with me—senators have no legitimate right to introduce legislation. No one elected them to be legislators. In fact, they are appointed, usually because they were good fundraisers on behalf of their party. They were hacks and flacks and fundraisers, and they get rewarded with this lifetime sinecure in the other place.

For God's sake, how did we ever get to the point where we are debating legislation that they have developed? How have we slipped to this, in the status of our parliamentary democracy, that it is the House of Commons' job, that the elected representatives, the duly, democratically elected representatives in the House of Commons, have to end up debating legislation that was put together by a bunch of unelected, undemocratic, and under indictment half the time, senators?

Does he agree with me that there is something fundamentally wrong with this picture? Will he stand up on behalf of his elected colleagues in the House of Commons and say the bill has no legitimate right to be in the House of Commons, never mind the points he was making about its relative merits?

Mr. Pat Martin (Winnipeg Centre, NDP)

Mr. Speaker, it is important to me that anyone watching this debate today keep in mind that there is nothing normal about the way the Conservatives ram through their aggressive legislative agenda.

First, there is nothing normal about the House of Commons debating a bill that originates in the Senate. There is nothing normal about the Conservatives moving closure on every single piece of legislation they introduce. Sometimes the same day they table the legislation, they move closure on the legislation.

It undermines everything that is good and decent about our parliamentary democracy to see these guys systematically strip down all the checks and balances, all the controls put in place to make the Westminster parliamentary democracy one of the best systems in the world. It should offend the sensibility of anyone who calls himself a democrat to realize that these guys have not allowed a single amendment to a single piece of legislation in the entire 41st Parliament. They do not respect Parliament.

I want any Canadian tuned in today to know that this is not normal. This will not be tolerated. We have to restore everything that is good about our parliamentary democracy and stop the current Conservative government in its tracks before it does more irreparable damage and harm.

Mr. Pat Martin (Winnipeg Centre, NDP)

Mr. Speaker, I have two sets of petitions I would like to present.

The first set of petitions calls upon the House of Commons and Parliament here assembled to take note that asbestos is the greatest industrial killer the world has ever known and that more Canadians now die from asbestos than all other industrial and occupational causes combined.

Therefore, the petitioners call upon Parliament to ban asbestos in all of its forms, end all government subsidies of asbestos, both in Canada and abroad, and stop blocking international health and safety conventions designed to protect workers from asbestos, such as the Rotterdam Convention.

Mr. Pat Martin (Winnipeg Centre, NDP)

Mr. Speaker, the second series of petitions I would like to table is calling upon the House of Commons to take note that the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has asked for further help to settle 100,000 Syrian refugees.

The petitioners ask the Canadian government to open more spaces in Canada to Syrian refugees of any religion and to quicken the processing time for more Syrian refugees to take sanctuary in Canada.

Mr. Pat Martin (Winnipeg Centre, NDP)

Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the 10th report of the Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates in relation to its study of the main estimates 2015-16.