Evidence of meeting #22 for Foreign Affairs and International Development in the 39th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was force.
A recording is available from Parliament.
12:55 p.m.
Conservative
12:55 p.m.
NDP
Paul Dewar NDP Ottawa Centre, ON
I'm sorry, I thought it was on the agenda. I will put a motion forward to put this on the agenda and would indulge my colleagues to approve that.
12:55 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kevin Sorenson
Today we're going to need unanimous consent. Do we have unanimous consent to put this motion on?
12:55 p.m.
Some hon. members
Agreed.
12:55 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kevin Sorenson
We have it.
Now, Mr. Dewar, we have unanimous consent. We should have a party.
12:55 p.m.
Some hon. members
Oh, oh!
12:55 p.m.
NDP
Paul Dewar NDP Ottawa Centre, ON
I was supposed to get it on the agenda because Ms. McDonough is not here. I believe we needed unanimous consent for both those reasons.
12:55 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kevin Sorenson
Yes, that's correct. If you would read her motion, that's all we would—
12:55 p.m.
NDP
Paul Dewar NDP Ottawa Centre, ON
Yes. It is:
That the committee urges the government of Canada to co-sponsor the draft resolution of the UN First Committee which calls on United Nations members to work towards “an arms trade treaty: establishing common international standards for the import, export and transfer of conventional arms”, and support this resolution when it is brought before the UN General Assembly for a vote.
Mr. Chair, I would also ask that this be made as a report to Parliament as soon as possible, if it is passed as a motion.
Thank you.
12:55 p.m.
Conservative
12:55 p.m.
NDP
12:55 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kevin Sorenson
All right. So you've heard the motion.
Mr. Van Loan, very quickly, and then we'll take a vote.
12:55 p.m.
Conservative
Peter Van Loan Conservative York—Simcoe, ON
Very quickly, we're quite comfortable supporting this because we do support the thrust. We just had a whole hearing on an area that's affected by this kind of small arms trade, and it's significant when you look at the kinds of countries that are likely to oppose it. There's a typical lineup of Iran, Russia, and China—those kinds of folks.
So we are happy to continue in the Canadian tradition of supporting arms control in these trouble-spot areas, in the hopes of advancing peace on a multilateral basis.
12:55 p.m.
Conservative
Deepak Obhrai Conservative Calgary East, AB
The intent of the motion is in the right direction. There's no question to the fact. I think we want to re-emphasize the fact that most of where this situation is really critical is in the conflict zones. If we can come up with a kind of resolution that's coming out of the UN to address the issue of the control of firearms in the conflict zones, you would find unanimous support all across the world in trying to do that. I just wanted to emphasize the conflict areas.
1 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kevin Sorenson
Thank you, Mr. Obhrai.
Are we all in favour of this motion?
(Motion agreed to)
1 p.m.
Conservative