Justice Committee on Feb. 7th, 2012

[Jack Harris, NDP, St. John's East, NL]

I think it's reasonable to try to dispose of the organized crime report. Will we get the draft before then? I'm just wondering if that's more efficient.

Are you thinking, Robert, that we should continue with this?

[Robert Goguen, Conservative, Moncton—Riverview—Dieppe, NB]

I think we should continue with this. It's not going to take us that much time to get through the organized crime report. I think you lose some momentum. We may avoid another meeting. You talked about having them come back to answer some technical questions. You may want to reserve that. Maybe we won't need it.

But certainly, the more of a time lag there is, the more chance there is of having to come back. We have Mr. Comartin's bill that you want to pass. I think you were told 24 hours and one witness. We don't have any, so.... The organized crime report has been waiting for some time, and certainly not half a meeting.... That would be my thought, anyway.

[Jack Harris, NDP, St. John's East, NL]

I know there was anxiety to finish the organized crime thing. My thought was that if we do have that date with no witnesses, then we could use it, but if you're....

[Robert Goguen, Conservative, Moncton—Riverview—Dieppe, NB]

In default, if you had nothing else to put there, certainly, but of course that doesn't give the clerk much comfort in knowing who to have to call, right?

[The Chair, Conservative, Dave MacKenzie]

That's what we need to know so the clerk can—

[Jack Harris, NDP, St. John's East, NL]

I thought there was some momentum to finish the organized crime report. We interrupted that momentum to have the minister because he was available today and now we're going to start another momentum with this one.

I'm recognizing, of course, that we do give certain priority to government bills. If it does take only one more meeting or half a meeting to hear the witnesses on the organized crime report, then at least perhaps the writers and analysts can finish the draft for our consideration. Otherwise, that's going to be put off as well until we hear those witnesses.

It seems to me to be more efficient to hear the—

[Robert Goguen, Conservative, Moncton—Riverview—Dieppe, NB]

I hear what you're saying, but I guess we're beyond “put off”....

[Jack Harris, NDP, St. John's East, NL]

Well, if we have a meeting on the sixteenth with the organized crime report, then the draft report that is now being worked on and revised as a result of our discussions.... I mean, this committee has to look at that too. Then at least we'll have three meetings on this done by then. We can do the one meeting—or half a meeting, if that's all that is necessary—on organized crime and give the analysts an opportunity to work on that report while we're continuing with this. It seems to me to be efficient. There seemed to be an awful hurry to get the organized crime report finished, up until today—

[The Chair, Conservative, Dave MacKenzie]

Let us know—

[Robert Goguen, Conservative, Moncton—Riverview—Dieppe, NB]

I haven't changed my idea. I don't disagree with what you're saying, but I think we should just get through this for the efficiency of it, because there is no burning need to interrupt this to finish the organized crime.... It dates back to, what, 2006?

[The Chair, Conservative, Dave MacKenzie]

Just let us know. The will of the committee is to continue on with this, so you want the clerk to call additional witnesses, then, on the sixteenth?

[A voice]

Yes—

[The Chair, Conservative, Dave MacKenzie]

That's the will of the committee?

[Jack Harris, NDP, St. John's East, NL]

It's the will of that side of the committee.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dave MacKenzie]

Well, I think it's the majority, Mr. Harris.

[Jack Harris, NDP, St. John's East, NL]

[Inaudible—Editor]

[The Chair, Conservative, Dave MacKenzie]

Okay. So the clerk will continue to call witnesses.

[Jack Harris, NDP, St. John's East, NL]

I just wanted to indicate that I understood there was some flexibility in terms of the lists from last night. We do have a couple of academics who we haven't been able to contact to see if they're available, and we did want to have someone from the community in Toronto that gave rise to this bill—not David Chen himself. There are people who have been active on that issue and we would like to hear from them. We are in the process of contacting an individual who we expect would be a witness, along with one other person.

[Robert Goguen, Conservative, Moncton—Riverview—Dieppe, NB]

They're not in the list of six you've submitted?

[Jack Harris, NDP, St. John's East, NL]

They weren't in the list we submitted yesterday.

[Robert Goguen, Conservative, Moncton—Riverview—Dieppe, NB]

Of which there were six?

[Jack Harris, NDP, St. John's East, NL]

No, but we indicated that there were others we were in the process of trying to contact.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dave MacKenzie]

From the chair's perspective, one of the issues is that you haven't set a time. That's the very difficult part of being the chair. When you leave it open, I don't know how you make your decisions on the total number of witnesses.... We'll go forward. We'll get through the lists that the clerk has and see where we are at that point.

The meeting is adjourned.