Citizenship and Immigration Committee on May 14th, 2014

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Lysane Blanchette-Lamothe]

Go ahead.

[Rathika Sitsabaiesan, NDP, Scarborough—Rouge River, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

It reads: that, notwithstanding the motion of the committee of Tuesday, April 1, 2014, the committee schedule three hours to hear witnesses on the subject matter of Bill C-24, An Act to amend the Citizenship Act and to make consequential amendments to other Acts.

That is the wording of the motion, and I'd like to motivate it, Madam Chair. Considering the fact that we are currently looking at the subject matter of Bill C-24 outside of the regular procedure of how we do things around here, considering the fact that this bill hasn't been—

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[Rathika Sitsabaiesan, NDP, Scarborough—Rouge River, ON]

Pardon?

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Lysane Blanchette-Lamothe]

Excuse me. I would ask members to be a bit more silent.

Go ahead, Madam Sitsabaiesan. You have the floor.

[Rathika Sitsabaiesan, NDP, Scarborough—Rouge River, ON]

Considering the fact that the House has not actually requested that the citizenship and immigration committee study this bill, the bill isn't before us.... This is not officially a pre-study. What we're actually looking at is the subject matter of a bill, and that's not a regular procedure.

A lot of the civil society groups would normally be paying attention to what's happening in the House of Commons, and if there's a bill that's being directed to a committee, they would contact us as members of the committee, or the clerk as a person who helps make this happen. They didn't know we were studying this topic, and now that they know this subject matter is being studied, we've had many people and organizations sending us requests to appear before this committee. I have received many emails from Julie, our clerk, about people requesting to appear before the committee. I know that even the UNHCR, the UN High Commissioner, was mentioning he would have loved to have been invited to come and speak and didn't get an opportunity.

Now it's too late for us to invite more witnesses to appear. I think such a study of what's going to be changing so much with respect to people's rights in this country is very important, and if the UN High Commissioner for Refugees wants to make a presentation and appear before this committee, we should at least be able to entertain that. As well, last week we had some witnesses who came but then lost their opportunity to speak before the committee.

For all those reasons—I can go on longer but I don't want to, because I want to move forward—I'm asking for three more hours to have more witnesses come before the committee. That's my motion.

While I have the floor, I have a question for the clerk, the chair, or the analyst, I'm not sure who: have we given instructions to the analyst about a report on the study we're doing right now on the subject matter of Bill C-24? I'm not sure, so I wanted to ask that question.

Thank you.

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Lysane Blanchette-Lamothe]

To answer your question, the committee, it's not....

I will say it in French; that will be much easier for me.

The committee has decided at this point—although this is not necessarily standard procedure—not to ask the analyst for a report. However, the analysts will produce an internal document, for information purposes, only for the members of the committee.

So the committee has not requested a report from the analysts.

[Rathika Sitsabaiesan, NDP, Scarborough—Rouge River, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I'm finished, thank you.

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Lysane Blanchette-Lamothe]

You want to plan another three hours to hear from witnesses? Is that right? I just want to make sure your motion is clear.

[Rathika Sitsabaiesan, NDP, Scarborough—Rouge River, ON]

Yes, Madam Chair.

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Lysane Blanchette-Lamothe]

Mr. Menegakis, on the motion.

[Costas Menegakis, Conservative, Richmond Hill, ON]

Yes. I move that we go in camera. Then I'll be speaking on the motion.

Thank you.

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Lysane Blanchette-Lamothe]

This motion cannot be debated.

(Motion agreed to)

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Lysane Blanchette-Lamothe]

I want to thank the witnesses for their contribution.

If we have any time left afterwards to continue the meeting with you, we will let you know, but for now, we will suspend the sitting before we go in camera.

[Proceedings continue in camera]