I call this meeting to order.
We're going to have a hard stop, folks, at six o'clock. I know a few of you have to leave; we're going to try to expedite things as much as we can so that we proceed only until six. If we need to continue thereafter, we will.
I welcome you to meeting number 21 of the House of Commons Standing Committee on National Defence.
Pursuant to the order of reference of Friday, October 10, 2025, and the motion adopted by the committee on Thursday, October 23, 2025, the committee is meeting to resume its consideration of Bill C-11, an act to amend the National Defence Act and other acts.
Members are attending in person. No one is on Zoom.
Before we begin, I ask participants to consult the guidelines on the table. These measures are to help prevent audio and feedback incidents and to protect the health and safety of the interpreters.
Members and witnesses, I'd like to remind you to please wait until you're recognized by name before speaking. If you wish to speak, please raise your hand. The clerk and I will manage the speaking order as best we can.
For interpretation, use the earpiece and select the appropriate channel for the floor, English or French.
All comments should be addressed through the chair.
I would now like to welcome our witnesses. We have Colonel Geneviève Lortie, deputy judge advocate general, military justice modernization, Canadian Armed Forces; and Lieutenant-Colonel Matt MacMillan, director of military justice implementation, office of the judge advocate general, Canadian Armed Forces.
Welcome to you both.
I'd now like to provide members of the committee with a few comments on how the committee will proceed today regarding the clause-by-clause consideration of this bill.
As the name indicates, this is an examination of all the clauses in the order in which they appear in the bill. I will call each clause successively, and each clause is then subject to debate and a vote. If there are amendments to the clause in question, I will recognize the member proposing the amendment, who may explain it. The amendment will then be open for debate. When no further members wish to intervene, the amendment will be voted on. Amendments will be considered in the order in which they appear in the package that each member has received from the clerk.
In addition to having to be properly drafted in a legal sense, the amendments must be procedurally admissible. The chair may be called upon to rule amendments inadmissible if they go against the principle of the bill or beyond the scope of the bill, both of which were adopted by the House when it agreed to the bill at second reading, or if they offend the financial prerogative of the Crown.
During debate on an amendment, members are permitted to move subamendments. Only one subamendment may be considered at a time, and that subamendment cannot be amended.
Once every clause has been voted on, the committee will vote on the title and the bill itself. An order to reprint the bill may be required, if amendments are adopted, so that the House has a proper copy for use at the report stage.
I thank members for their attention, and I wish everyone a very productive clause-by-clause as we consider Bill C-11.
I know that many of you have all the clauses and the amendments to them, so I'll proceed if you're all ready.
Pursuant to Standing Order 75(1), consideration of clause 1, the short title, is postponed.
The chair now calls clause 2. Shall clause 2 carry?
(Clause 2 agreed to)
I will now proceed to proposed new clause 2.1, which is a Conservative amendment.
Do you wish to move this amendment?
