Mr. Reid.
Evidence of meeting #6 for Procedure and House Affairs in the 40th Parliament, 3rd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was witness.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Evidence of meeting #6 for Procedure and House Affairs in the 40th Parliament, 3rd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was witness.
A recording is available from Parliament.
12:45 p.m.
Conservative
Scott Reid Conservative Lanark—Frontenac—Lennox and Addington, ON
No doubt the purpose of the witnesses is to establish the points that are in contention and which, by Professor Cotler's testimony, have had the effect of impairing his privileges. What he says in his testimony before us, when he attended—it would be around 11:30 to 11:35, just so that people can find it--was the “grievous and false accusations”—in the plural—in these targeted mailings.
So he's presumably not referring simply to the statement “willingly participated in overtly anti-Semitic Durban I”; I assume he's also referring to—
12:45 p.m.
Conservative
12:45 p.m.
Conservative
Scott Reid Conservative Lanark—Frontenac—Lennox and Addington, ON
No, no, I know, but my point is simply that there's a second statement that he clearly regards as being problematic, and therefore witnesses who relate to that testimony, the de-funding of Hamas and Hezbollah.... I think this may be where some of the witnesses come from, because they expressed opinions—
12:45 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Joe Preston
So you assume that some of the witnesses will be able to do that. I can't pre-assume that--
12:45 p.m.
Conservative
Scott Reid Conservative Lanark—Frontenac—Lennox and Addington, ON
That's right: these are not purely people dealing with the Durban conference. I'm simply basing it on that assumption, yes.
12:45 p.m.
NDP
Yvon Godin NDP Acadie—Bathurst, NB
Yes, Mr. Chair.
I really had the impression earlier that I had missed a meeting. You said that we had received the list, that we had accepted it and returned it to you, as though we had discussed witnesses. I just realized that I did not miss a meeting—
and we have never discussed the witnesses.
12:45 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Joe Preston
I have to correct you there. A witness list was in front of all of us at the last meeting—
12:45 p.m.
NDP
12:45 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Joe Preston
I'm going to suggest that it was discussed and that it was said that this is a fairly extensive list, and could the clerk and the chair go away and come back with a layout of how these would go.
12:45 p.m.
Yves Godin
No, Mr. Chair--
12:45 p.m.
NDP
12:45 p.m.
NDP
Yvon Godin NDP Acadie—Bathurst, NB
And what I'm saying is that normally when we bring witnesses, we more or less know from the people putting forward the witnesses to the committee, in any committee I've been at.... The way it goes is that they say, this witness is so and so, and I'd like to have him here because he could contribute to the case.
I'm saying that this was not discussed. I think that's why now, today, we have questions like, who are all those people? Where are they coming from?
12:45 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Joe Preston
Although I agree with your statements to this point, there certainly was opportunity for that discussion—
12:45 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Joe Preston
We ended the meeting probably 50 minutes early last week. When I said here is the witness list and asked, do you want to sit here and do this and work it out together, or will you take the chair's and the clerk's ability to try to group witnesses together, the committee all nodded and said, yes, let's go do that.
12:45 p.m.
An hon. member
That's exactly right.
