Evidence of meeting #21 for Public Safety and National Security in the 39th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was municipalities.
A recording is available from Parliament.
10:35 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Garry Breitkreuz
Thank you for that comment.
Seeing there are no further comments, I'd like to call the question. We're voting on BQ amendment 2.
(Amendment negatived)
Shall clause 4--
10:35 a.m.
Liberal
Derek Lee Liberal Scarborough—Rouge River, ON
Mr. Chair, I'm sorry to be really picky here, but it has to do with clause 4.
If we look at paragraph 4(1)(d), you will recall that I had mentioned the hyphens and commas earlier. In that one clause—
10:35 a.m.
Conservative
10:35 a.m.
Liberal
Derek Lee Liberal Scarborough—Rouge River, ON
I'm looking at a hyphen, a comma, and a conjunctive, le mot “et”. Why do we need a hyphen, a comma, and a conjunctive word when they hardly exist in the English version?
10:35 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Garry Breitkreuz
Does anybody have a comment on that? I think this was asked previously and no one was prepared at that point.
10:35 a.m.
Liberal
Derek Lee Liberal Scarborough—Rouge River, ON
In this case, Mr. Chairman, one of them is redundant. Either you get rid of the hyphens or the comma. You don't need a hyphen and a comma. Linguistically it does not fit.
Somebody got real excited about the em dashes or something, couldn't resist the urge, and maybe forgot to take out a comma. Is there any comment on that?
10:35 a.m.
Jacques Talbot Counsel, Department of Justice
Thank you.
I would like to clarify that the Department of Justice has begun the review. A drafter wrote this text, which was then revised by specialized editors, and then it was submitted to our jurilinguists. This pertains to the current drafting rules. That does not change the meaning of this provision. If somebody got off track, it would have been intercepted.
10:35 a.m.
Liberal
Derek Lee Liberal Scarborough—Rouge River, ON
Again I'm looking at paragraph 4(1)(r) en français. The English version has no hyphens. In the French version, for the purpose of inserting one adjective, the drafter found it necessary to insert two dashes.
Couldn't it be read, “de faciliter le partage autorisé de l’information”? Why not do that? Why insert the hyphens? Do you have an answer?
10:35 a.m.
Counsel, Department of Justice
Once again, we have to remember that legislative texts, Canadian legislation, is co-drafted. Every drafter writes some in his own style, and then they are revised. You must not look at them as translations. The French version is not an exact duplicate of the English version. What counts is that the extent is exactly the same, that the meaning of the text is identical. The drafted text is then examined more carefully. In this case, neither our drafters nor our revisers pointed out any particular problem.
10:35 a.m.
Liberal
Derek Lee Liberal Scarborough—Rouge River, ON
Okay.
I have to vote on this stuff, Mr. Chairman, and I have to understand why it's being written this way. I have a responsibility to my electors and to the rest of the country when we go through this.
I'm going to let it go. We're not going to spend a lot of time on too many commas and hyphens here, but perhaps I'll have an opportunity to raise it again.
Thank you.
10:35 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Garry Breitkreuz
Yes, I'm sure you will, Mr. Lee.
We are voting on clause 4.
(Clause 4 agreed to)
10:40 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Garry Breitkreuz
I will now ask the committee to consider clauses 5 to 14 together. There are no amendments to any of these. If there are no objections, do clauses 5 to 14 carry?
(Clauses 5 to 14 inclusive agreed to)
10:40 a.m.
Some hon. members
Agreed.
10:40 a.m.
Some hon. members
Agreed.
10:40 a.m.
Some hon. members
Agreed.
10:40 a.m.
Conservative
10:40 a.m.
Some hon. members
Agreed.
10:40 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Garry Breitkreuz
I think we are done. I will just ask the committee to remain back for a moment here. We have a bit of other business to discuss.
This Thursday, we were supposed to have Shirley Heafey here. I think you all got a copy of her letter. What we have to decide is whether we still want to hear from Mr. Paul Kennedy. He's the current chair of the RCMP Complaints Commission. He was invited originally, you'll remember, to appear with Ms. Heafey. He is still available and is willing to come. He has some items that he wishes to bring forward to the committee. We would hear from Foreign Affairs for one hour and then from him for one hour. Do we want to do that, or do we want him to come after the second report has been released? What is the wish of the committee? Maybe we could have a show of hands. Do we want Mr. Kennedy to come for that second hour, or should we postpone his visit until after the second report on Maher Arar comes down? What is the committee's wish in this respect?
Mr. Lee.