Mere hours after Green Party Leader Elizabeth May and a number independent MPs held a press conference to decry a government motion that would change how Parliament passes laws, the procedure and House affairs committee voted to do just that.

A motion, put forward by Tory MP Scott Reid during a procedure committee meeting last week, has raised significant criticism from independent MPs and others who not members of officially recognized caucuses, such as May, who say it will seriously reduce their abilities to participate in the legislative process.

Until now, independent MPs and those belonging to parties with less than 12 members in the House could introduce amendments to legislation in the House of Commons at report stage, but Reid’s motion set out to change that and force these members to present amendments at committee stage instead.

“We are outraged by efforts from the centre of the Conservative party…to limit the rights that members of parliament have,” May said in the press conference on Parliament Hill.

“In our history, Westminster parliamentary democracy is founded on the idea that all members of parliament are equal…Even the prime minister is considered the first among equals,” she said.

May continued, “Over time, political parties have accumulated more rights unto themselves, and in 1963 the political parties that were organized passed laws and regulations in Parliament that allowed parties with more than 12 MPs to get additional funds and resources from taxpayers for their research offices.”

She added that this rule means she, as well as the other MPs that are either independent or not a member of a recognized party – there are currently nine of them in total – don’t have rights to sit on committees.

“But we’ve always had the right to put forward amendments to legislation. That’s a fundamental right of a member of parliament on behalf of our constituents.”

May, as well as independent MPs Bruce Hyer, Brent Rathgeber and Maria Mourani say they’ve signed an open letter to committee chairs and members asking them to “seriously consider the implications of shutting down minority rights in the House of Commons.”

“This is yet another example of a decades-long campaign to shut down the rights of MPs and exercise a dangerous level of control over speech in the House of Commons,” noted Hyer in a press release sent out Tuesday morning.

“It started when Pierre Trudeau changed the Canada Elections Act in 1970 to give party leaders the final say over election candidates, and it continues here today with the Conservatives trying to silence independent members and members of small parties.”

It’s “extremely unsettling” for the government to try to limit the ability of MPs in this way, Hyer added.

Their efforts and protest, however, have seemed to be for naught. After much wrangling and strong defences from May, a well as some NDP MPs in the procedure and House affairs and other committees Tuesday morning, the motion passed.