Canadian Heritage Committee on June 2nd, 2016

[Peter Van Loan, Conservative, York—Simcoe, ON]

If I may speak, Madam Chair, I would have appreciated the same respect from you when I was attempting to complete my sentence and you put the question at our last committee meeting. That is what Standing Order 116 provides.

With the greatest of respect, the will of the committee does not override the rules of Parliament, the Standing Orders of the House, the standing orders of this committee, nor the other rules that we have adopted here. Under your chairmanship, you are making a mockery of all our rules. This is simply a process where the majority gets to say what they want and throw every rule out the window.

We did not adopt a motion to suspend the rules of the committee. No such motion has been adopted, but that is effectively what your chairmanship is doing.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

I am sorry, but if you are challenging the chair once again, I will put the question to the committee that the chair's ruling stand.

[Larry Maguire, Conservative, Brandon—Souris, MB]

Madam Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Mr. Maguire, there is a motion on the table that the chair's ruling stand.

Shall I call this question?

[Larry Maguire, Conservative, Brandon—Souris, MB]

Madam Chair, with all due respect—

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Mr. Van Loan is challenging the chair. He has said so in no uncertain terms.

[Peter Van Loan, Conservative, York—Simcoe, ON]

We cannot proceed.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Do I get it that you're challenging the chair's ruling?

[Peter Van Loan, Conservative, York—Simcoe, ON]

Yes. My view is that we cannot proceed at this time.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

You did this at the last meeting. The committee ruled to have the chair's ruling sustained. We are now having you challenge the chair again. Is that true, Mr. Van Loan?

[Peter Van Loan, Conservative, York—Simcoe, ON]

Yes. I believe we cannot proceed at this time with clause-by-clause under our rules.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

To the committee, is the chair's ruling sustained?

(Ruling of the chair sustained)

The chair's ruling is sustained, so we will now continue with clause 1.

(On clause 1)

[Larry Maguire, Conservative, Brandon—Souris, MB]

Madam Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Yes, Mr. Maguire. You are speaking to clause 1, because that is the order of business now.

[Larry Maguire, Conservative, Brandon—Souris, MB]

Well, I have a new point of order, then.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

What is your point of order, Mr. Maguire?

[Larry Maguire, Conservative, Brandon—Souris, MB]

It is to the point, tried to be made earlier, about something our committee agreed to earlier in May in regard to that whole process of notifications. I'd like to put in a request for those notifications.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

If I may remind you, Mr. Maguire, with 48 hours' notice Mr. Van Loan tabled the list of witnesses. He tabled those on Tuesday evening, and it is my understanding that this constitutes 48 hours.

Now we will move to clause 1—

[Larry Maguire, Conservative, Brandon—Souris, MB]

Madam Chair, am I to believe I will not get the copies of the points that were sent out to the members of Parliament, including independents?

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Yes, you are.

I think this committee has ruled that we move on to the business of this meeting.

[Larry Maguire, Conservative, Brandon—Souris, MB]

I'm just going back to what we had agreed to in early May.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

On Tuesday there was an agreement by this committee to move in a particular manner. As a result, Mr. Van Loan tabled his witnesses' names 48 hours before this meeting. The 48 hours of tabling witnesses' names has been duly complied with. Those witnesses were duly contacted. We now have a witness here as a result of that.

I will move to the first clause.

The schedule to the National Anthem Act is replaced by the schedule set out in the schedule to this Act.

[Larry Maguire, Conservative, Brandon—Souris, MB]

Madam Chair, I have a point of clarification. I'm sure what I'm seeking will not change the outcome of the votes in regard to going through clause-by-clause consideration of this bill. I would just like to have clarification and notification that the rules we had agreed to in early May were properly followed.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Indeed, I said that 48 hours’ notice for witnesses was given on Tuesday. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday; I think that was 48 hours. The clerk immediately contacted the witnesses when he got Mr. Van Loan's tabling of the list of witnesses. Of all the members of this committee, Mr. Van Loan was the only person who tabled any witness names, and they were duly contacted 48 hours before today, Thursday.

Thank you, Mr. Maguire.

[Larry Maguire, Conservative, Brandon—Souris, MB]

I know we've clarified that many of them couldn't get here on short notice. I'm only following the rule that it hasn't been 24 hours yet since the bill was reported. That's all I was wanting to reference. That's all I was pointing out in regard to making sure our committee has followed all the proper rules, which it has not.