Information & Ethics Committee on Nov. 27th, 2023

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

We're still on the amendment, Mr. Barrett.

Go ahead.

[Michael Barrett, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON]

Chair, that we dedicate as many meetings as possible to complete the witness testimony.... “As many meetings as possible” is, I guess, limited only by the resources of the House. It's not as many meetings as necessary.

I don't think having meetings for the sake of having meetings is going to accomplish what we need to do. Also, making sure that we actually have business to populate “as many meetings as possible” would be important.

If we're sending a summons to folks who have already declined.... We found ourselves in this situation at this committee before, which netted the same result with folks not headquartered in Canada. We saw that with the CEO from Meta before. I would expect that should the CEO of TikTok, the parent company, not be in Canada, we would receive a similar response.

Not having limitless meetings is important. We have meetings that are programmed already, and we have....

I'm sorry, Chair—

[A voice]

[Inaudible—Editor]

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

Actually, we can't go to a vote. He still has the floor.

[Michael Barrett, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON]

I can't hear what they're saying.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

Go ahead, Mr. Barrett, please.

[Michael Barrett, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON]

I think that having unlimited meetings when we can't even get witnesses to fill the meetings we already have scheduled is not a prudent use of the committee's time.

You've just seen that there isn't even the will of the committee to act on the proposed amended motion or the unamended motion, and that's just to send invites to all the witnesses. To just remove item (a) by having the committee agree to it on consent or unanimously agree to it.... The mover doesn't even agree to item (a) in the motion. I'm not sure how we're going to find concurrence to get through that.

Certainly, with respect to item (c), I think it's going to be important that we get a vote on that because “as many meetings as possible” is not a reasonable turn of phrase. It's not a reasonable instruction to the committee.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

We're still on the amendment to remove paragraph (c).

We have a hard stop right now. I'm going to have to adjourn the meeting, because it's just been indicated....

[Damien Kurek, Conservative, Battle River—Crowfoot, AB]

I'll pass.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

I'll give you a quick second here.

Go ahead.

[Iqra Khalid, Liberal, Mississauga—Erin Mills, ON]

Mr. Chair, I would really implore you to get the votes in for the amendment. Let's vote on this motion as quickly as possible.

[Michael Barrett, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON]

Do we have time or not?

[Iqra Khalid, Liberal, Mississauga—Erin Mills, ON]

Again, this is further delaying the study, Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

That's the difficulty. If there is more debate on the amendment or on the motion.... I can't force a vote, Ms. Khalid. I just can't.

On the amendment, is there any further discussion?

[Michael Barrett, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON]

Do we still have resources to continue the meeting?

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

We don't right now. We're done at 5:45.

[Iqra Khalid, Liberal, Mississauga—Erin Mills, ON]

Chair, would it be possible to ask for resources?

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

I'll leave that to the clerk to respond to.

We've been emailing some of the technical people, and we've been told that we have a hard stop at 5:45. We're past that point right now.

[Michael Barrett, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON]

We should adjourn.

[Iqra Khalid, Liberal, Mississauga—Erin Mills, ON]

I'm not sure, Mr. Chair, if there's anybody else on the speaking list.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

Mr. Kurek is on the speaking list.

Go ahead, Damien.

[Damien Kurek, Conservative, Battle River—Crowfoot, AB]

Thanks, Chair.

In regard to my amendment, I think it's pretty straightforward and it will be the evidence required to find out whether this motion is in good faith or is simply an attempt to hide from accountability. With that, I would simply leave those comments.

I think that part (c) of Ms. Khalid's motion is not only unprecedented but also a clear attempt to not allow this committee to look at other important matters that are at hand.

With that, I would cede my time to whoever is next on the list when it comes to the amendment.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

I don't have anybody else on the list.

[Iqra Khalid, Liberal, Mississauga—Erin Mills, ON]

You can call the question on the amendment.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

I'll call the question.