Senator Patterson: Thank you for that. Senator Gold, this is perhaps a little bit of a wrinkle on Senator Quinn’s question, but you just justified having a pre-study of Bill C-11 so that members of the Standing Senate Committee on Transport and Communications will have a better opportunity to understand its content. Could this goal of improving the understanding of a bill not be better accomplished by a briefing, which could be available to all senators and not just members of the Transport and Communications Committee?

Hon. Dennis Glen Patterson: Senator Gold, you got my attention by putting to us today that the alternative to pre-studying Bill C-11 and another equally controversial bill you have given notice of is to wait and do nothing. Senator Gold, you know we have very limited committee time due to the current hybrid situation. We have, at a quick count, about two dozen Senate public bills that need consideration by our committees.

Instead of waiting and doing nothing, why don’t we devote our precious and scarce committee time to giving those thoughtful Senate public bills the consideration they deserve in our committees? Would that not be a very useful alternative to waiting and doing nothing?