Evidence of meeting #36 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 goods.
A recording is available from Parliament.
1 p.m.
Bloc
1 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Garry Breitkreuz
Louise has suggested that she could prepare a draft budget and that we take a look at it on the Tuesday when we get back. Then we have to just set a date after that. It doesn't look as though we could get it done in time for the 19th.
Is that okay?
1 p.m.
An hon. member
[Inaudible--Editor]
1 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Garry Breitkreuz
Well, we'll have to see. First of all, we have to get it approved.
1 p.m.
An hon. member
Would it be on the 26th?
1 p.m.
Conservative
1 p.m.
Liberal
Sue Barnes Liberal London West, ON
Can we then get the original briefing on the Thursday, so we're not delaying that?
1 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Garry Breitkreuz
Okay, and who is going to be in on that briefing? The RCMP? Is there anybody else you can think of who would add something?
1 p.m.
Liberal
1 p.m.
Conservative
1 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Garry Breitkreuz
Does anybody else have a suggestion here?
Yes, go ahead, Philip.
1 p.m.
Committee Researcher
Mr. Chair, my colleague and I have actually started to develop a witness protection list, so our suggestion is—we read the press—the RCMP, which is obvious, the Department of Justice, and anyone within the Department of Public Safety.
There is an academic at the University of Ottawa, Thomas Gabor, who is a criminologist. He has written a paper that talks about witness protection programs in other countries besides Canada.
Since I have the floor, may I also ask members to submit, again through Louise Hayes, your clerk, any witnesses you think should be heard from? As an example, there is a lawyer, Barry Swadron, who has represented a number of people who have been in the witness protection program and who have been very unhappy with it. He's someone we'll have on our witness list.
Your difficulty, of course, will be if you want to hear from some of those who have been protected. That's a serious problem, and I'm not sure into how much detail the RCMP will be able to go, because of the nature of the program and the protections with which it's surrounded.
1 p.m.
Liberal
Sue Barnes Liberal London West, ON
I think we have some issues, Mr. Chair, around not wanting anybody to break the law. And while we're in camera looking at the report, maybe we can have a little discussion about this, because we're not in camera right now.
1 p.m.
Liberal
Roy Cullen Liberal Etobicoke North, ON
Mr. Chair, I put some ideas into the hopper a while back. They're not a priority for me now, but they include the idea of the fairness initiative—how we treat people at our border—and cost recovery. I'm going to defer for a while on those.
1 p.m.
Liberal
Sue Barnes Liberal London West, ON
Mr. Breitkreuz, can I add one more thing?
We had people here before, talking about the no-fly list. There was the next level up, the sort of semi-appeal process, which was a separate entity. I think we'd like to have them back.
Isn't that correct? Do you remember, Joe and Serge?
1 p.m.
An hon. member
That's a good idea.
1 p.m.
Liberal
Sue Barnes Liberal London West, ON
I think we have to hear some information from them, because they were the ones a person would never hear back from as to why they were not removed. I think that's pretty important.
1 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Garry Breitkreuz
What people do you want back? Is it the same people or different people?
1 p.m.
Liberal
Sue Barnes Liberal London West, ON
They're different people. It's the ones who weren't here at the table at that time. They said they were the decision-makers, if there was an issue that was under....
1 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Garry Breitkreuz
Okay, so we have Tuesday and Thursday, the 17th and 19th, pretty well nailed down. Do we want to go beyond that?
1 p.m.
Liberal
Roy Cullen Liberal Etobicoke North, ON
I propose that we leave a little flexibility, because if we come back and go over the counterfeit goods report on Tuesday, we're assuming that everything is going to be resolved on Tuesday. We need to leave a little bit of time. There's going to be some feedback; there are going to be some decisions made to review the next draft—maybe and hopefully a final draft.
1 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Garry Breitkreuz
Tentatively, the 24th might be another day. It gives us a couple of days to look at the draft and decide where we want to go. So tentatively we have the three days following the break done.
I assumed that this professor would not come on the 19th, that we would just have the officials and the RCMP in the preliminary—
