Senator Housakos: Government leader, you’re giving the impression to this chamber that there is somehow a tradition in this place at message point of legislation that we’re just a rubber stamp, and that’s not the case.

It’s in the Constitution that this chamber has a right and a responsibility at message stage to refuse a bill as well, which you did not highlight, and to send it back along with many other options that this chamber has. Yes, there has been a tradition to bow to the wishes of the elected chamber, but there is also something the forefathers had established when they created this chamber — that when a government does something so egregious that a large number of Canadians find it offensive, we have the right to exercise our constitutional authority. I just want to put that on the record as well, government leader.