By proroguing Parliament, once again, Stephen Harper is shutting down democracy and locking out Members of Parliament, preventing them from doing the very important work they were elected to do in the House of Commons.

New Democrat MPs will continue to work hard in their ridings. That is what they do when the House is not in session. But MPs need to be able to bring back to Parliament the concerns of their constituents.

They won’t be able to, and this constitutes a debasement of Canada’s democratic system.

Canadians want their MPs to be in the House to deal with the important issues facing them and their families. Hundreds of thousands of Canadians are still out of work, they are trying to recover from this recession wondering how or when they are going to find a job. Thousands more are worried about the safety of their pensions, wondering if they will have what they need to make ends meet when they retire.

Yet Stephen Harper chose to lock the doors of parliament instead of dealing with these important issues.

By pulling the plug on Parliament Stephen Harper killed 36 pieces of government legislation which were making progress, including bills dealing with important issues such as consumer protection, white collar crimes or digital policy.

While Stephen Harper is blocking elected Members of Parliament from working in the House of Commons, he is in the process of appointing more and more unelected Senators, something he promised he would never do.

All this to run away from accountability and to further cover up the Afghan detainee torture scandal.

It is unacceptable. New Democrats will continue to work hard, and this is why our MPs will attend, as planned, the NDP Caucus retreat scheduled the week before the return of Parliament in Wakefield, Quebec.

The meeting will go ahead, because, more than ever, New Democrats are committed to keeping the Conservative government accountable. We may need to be creative. But we will be relentless.