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.

Senator Housakos: The tradition of the institution here when it comes to pre-studies has always been to pre-study bills when there is public consensus for a bill or when there is a consensus from the other place that a bill needs to be passed in a timely fashion because of public interest.

At this particular juncture, in the case of this bill, it is controversial and without consensus. There is no stakeholder consensus. It is not responding to some kind of timely urgency, clearly, because successive governments have not tackled this particular issue now in more than two decades. More fundamentally, wouldn’t you agree, senator, that our role is one of sober second thought and not to simultaneously engage in what will invariably be a very acrimonious debate and discussion on this issue in the other place? As we see, the committee in the other place has not even started their deliberations yet.

Wouldn’t it be prudent to allow for the political pressure cooker on the other side to do its due diligence while we engage in our sober second thought? Nothing in your speech has indicated that there is public urgency for this to be done in two weeks, a month, or even the fall for that matter. What I hear from many people is that it requires robust and thorough review. Wouldn’t you agree, senator?

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