Ottawa, ON – John Brassard, Conservative House Leader, and Luc Berthold, Deputy Leader of the Official Opposition, issued the following statement ahead of the second day of debate on Government Motion 11:

“If Motion 11 passes as written, Justin Trudeau will have the Parliament he wants. One that provides him with an audience, not an opposition.

“The most egregious part of the motion is the provision that will allow a Minister to move adjournment of the House until September, without notice, at any time.

“The motion will also allow the Liberals to force the House to sit until midnight on any given day, without giving workers on Parliament Hill any advance notice.

“During these extended sittings, the NDP-Liberal caucus will not have to show up in the House of Commons because their motion will remove the constitutional requirement of quorum.

“It gets worse. The Liberals have given notice of their intention to move closure on Motion 11 to shut down debate by the end of the day.

“The NDP once believed that the use of closure was undemocratic, but since the election, they vote for it every time Justin Trudeau tells them to.

“Today’s votes on closure and on Motion 11 are not about confidence or supply, and therefore the NDP are free to vote against, without fear of violating the terms of the coalition agreement.

“Rather, these votes are about whether or not the NDP will give Justin Trudeau the Parliament he wants.

“Today, we will find out if the New Democratic Party of Canada belongs to Justin Trudeau.”