Public Safety Committee on Dec. 7th, 2007

Evidence of meeting #11 for Public Safety and National Security in the 39th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was case.

A recording is available from Parliament.

On the agenda

Bill C-3, An Act to amend the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (certificate and special advocate) and to make a consequential amendment to another Act

MPs speaking

Also speaking

Lynda Clairmont Associate Assistant Deputy Minister, Emergency Management and National Security, Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness

Daniel Therrien Acting Assistant Deputy Attorney General, Citizenship, Immigration and Public Safety Portfolio, Department of Justice

David Dunbar General Counsel, Canada Border Services Agency

Warren Woods Senior Policy Analyst, Operational Policy Section, National Security Policy Directorate, Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness

Clerk of the Committee Mr. Roger Préfontaine

Joann Garbig Procedural Clerk

9:50 a.m.

Some hon. members

Agreed.

9:50 a.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Garry Breitkreuz

Shall the committee order a reprint of the bill?

9:50 a.m.

Some hon. members

Agreed.

9:50 a.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Garry Breitkreuz

Mr. MacKenzie, you were wondering if we could introduce it into the House this afternoon. Do you still wish to pursue that? How do we handle that at committee? Is that possible?

9:50 a.m.

Conservative

Dave MacKenzie Conservative Oxford, ON

Mr. Chair, I would ask, if it's at all possible, that the legislative clerk and the clerk have it ready to present to the House. I appreciate that it's a very difficult request, if it can be done. But you've already done superhuman stuff to get us to this point, so we well understand.

9:50 a.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Garry Breitkreuz

Is it okay with the committee, if it's possible?

This is only if it's possible. If it looks even probable but....

9:50 a.m.

Liberal

Sue Barnes Liberal London West, ON

Maybe the legal counsel or the clerk could explain. There are processes after we've done amendments; different people inside government have to clean up the bill and all the typos. She knows what I'm talking about.

9:50 a.m.

Liberal

Roy Cullen Liberal Etobicoke North, ON

Not inside the government, inside the caucus.

9:50 a.m.

Liberal

Sue Barnes Liberal London West, ON

Inside the Parliament.

December 7th, 2007 / 9:50 a.m.

The Clerk of the Committee Mr. Roger Préfontaine

For a reprint, yes.

9:50 a.m.

Liberal

Sue Barnes Liberal London West, ON

Yes, presumably there's editing and stuff. There are different sections.

As soon as possible I think is what we'd like.

9:50 a.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Garry Breitkreuz

Would you mind just making a comment, please?

9:50 a.m.

Joann Garbig Procedural Clerk

It happens in-house. What I could explain is that once the committee has completed its work on the bill, if there have been amendments from the floor or slight modifications that the committee has made, we need to process those, have them translated as necessary. Any amendments that were adopted by the committee have to be assembled in the report. Sometimes we have these electronically in our system already and it's fairly straightforward to just plug them into the report. Other times we have to create the amendment. All this takes some time, which is why I'm a bit hesitant about guaranteeing that the report can be ready at noon today.

Thank you.

9:50 a.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Garry Breitkreuz

Yes, Mr. MacKenzie.

9:50 a.m.

Conservative

Dave MacKenzie Conservative Oxford, ON

I'd just like to say on behalf of the government side how much we appreciate the work that the chair and the officers here have done, and also the members opposite. This has been a very difficult situation for everybody, to deal with this in such a short period of time, and I just can't express enough how much we appreciate the cooperation we've received around the table from everyone. Certainly we hope that we won't see these kinds of things come before us in this manner in the future.

Thank you very much.

9:50 a.m.

Liberal

Ujjal Dosanjh Liberal Vancouver South, BC

It's exciting.

9:50 a.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Garry Breitkreuz

This is. This is Parliament at work. As the chair, I want to express my appreciation as well.

I want to thank all of our witnesses who have come.

Monsieur Ménard.

9:50 a.m.

Bloc

Serge Ménard Bloc Marc-Aurèle-Fortin, QC

I agree with everything, except for one aspect.

I find it bizarre to say that amendments to expand the reasons for an appeal and the process to be followed are outside the scope of the bill. They were within the scope of the laws we considered. Therefore, I want to express my dissent with the recommendations that were made. I am looking forward to seeing the judicial decisions that will be made on this.

9:50 a.m.

Liberal

Ujjal Dosanjh Liberal Vancouver South, BC

May I add our thanks from the opposition to all the officials, the House, and the government.

Thank you.

9:50 a.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Garry Breitkreuz

Thank you all very much. It's been great working together.

This meeting stands adjourned.