Mr. Chair, could I share my perspective on this issue?
Mr. Chong referred to a much broader issue of protocol for half-masting in Canada. It's not restricted simply to the half-masting issue that was addressed in Mr. Telegdi's motion. I want to remind the members of the committee that an expert panel was charged with reviewing flag half-masting protocol in Canada. The panel was chaired by Robert D. Watt, who is the Rideau Herald Emeritus, and there were a number of other experts in the area of protocol. In their report they came out with recommendations that perhaps not all of us would support.
It had been my hope that their report would form the basis of a study at this committee. I sense that what we're getting here is a discussion about Mr. Telegdi's motion. I'm hoping this is not what's happening here, because that's just one small part of the whole half-masting protocol issue.
Mr. Chair, I would seek support from the other members of this committee to actually take the report of the expert panel that was just released and study it as it relates to many other issues relating to half-masting.
Mr. Siksay made a suggestion that Canadians seem to understand the protocol of half-masting. In fact, most Canadians have no idea what that protocol is. They understand what half-masting is, but they don't understand the protocol. There are different protocols for different occasions; there are different protocols for different individuals who lose their lives in the service of their country.
One of the criticisms of the Telegdi motion was that it focused exclusively on our armed forces and neglected a number of other first responders who put their lives on the line every day, such as police officers and fire rescue workers. That is a much broader discussion than Mr. Telegdi's motion, and I'm not sure I want to make revisiting Mr. Telegdi's motion the focus of our discussion. I want to deal with the larger issue of flag half-masting as a matter of protocol.
I had a chance to review some of the recommendations the expert panel issued, and I think there's much room for a broader discussion. I might not agree with all those recommendations; in fact, we might all disagree on a recommendation-by-recommendation basis. I would expect that this type of study would not be one for which the timing is inappropriate. Mr. Telegdi brought his motion forward; it was debated and passed, and no one suggested it was out of order because the timing wasn't quite right. I thought there was a suggestion coming from across the floor that somehow this is the wrong time to discuss this. I don't think there's a wrong time to discuss the broader issue of flag half-masting as a form of protocol in many different settings.
If in fact the objections that I hear from the other side of the table are focused strictly on Mr. Telegdi's motion, I can understand that, but I don't think that's the purpose here. A study was just issued, and I believe the Prime Minister had expressed his hope that this committee would actually study that report.
I just want to make sure we're clear. Was that the intention of your motion?