Canadian Heritage Committee on June 7th, 2021

[The Chair, Liberal, Scott Simms]

Welcome back, everybody. I'm sorry that the break was a little longer than I anticipated.

I want to bring everybody up to speed on what is happening. We've just received several amendments from the Conservative Party, which would be under CPC amendments.

Since we're following along on our song sheets once again, I'll ask you to turn to hymn 9.2.

I'm going to read out the reference numbers that were handed in and I'm going to put a label on them as to what party and what amendments they are.

We'll start with the reference number, and I'll just read the last three numbers for the sake of time. The reference number of this one is 583. It will now be CPC 9.2. That is what we are going to address momentarily.

Following that, reference number 641, the last three numbers, is now going to be CPC 9.3. For those of you watching at home, this means that it is an amendment from the Conservative members of the committee. That's what the “CPC” is for.

The amendment with the last three numbers as reference number 725 is now CPC 9.4.

Moving right along, reference number 200 is now CPC 9.5.

Reference number 014 is now going to be CPC 9.6.

We've just received another amendment, the last three numbers of the reference number are 023. That is now CPC 9.7. However, that is going to be on clause 9, not on clause 7, so we'll be dealing with that at a later time.

Mr. Méla, if I'm not mistaken, you said that amendment is going to be following G-13.

[Philippe Méla]

Yes, Mr. Chair. That's right.

[The Chair, Liberal, Scott Simms]

Okay. It's G-13(N).

[An hon. member]

Bingo.

[The Chair, Liberal, Scott Simms]

I was waiting for someone to yell “Bingo”.

For those of you who are watching at home, no, this is not parliamentary bingo. There is no prize, so don't get out any cards, dabbers, or anything of the sort. We're going through line by line, clause by clause, and basically these are amendments from the floor. Essentially, we just got them and all members have them.

I'm just going through a labelling exercise right now because these amendments, at least all but one, deal with clause 7 and we are still in clause 7.

Do I have any points of clarification that need to be answered at this time?

Seeing none, we are going to proceed.

[Philippe Méla]

Mr. Chair—

[The Chair, Liberal, Scott Simms]

I'm sorry.

Mr. Méla, our legislative clerk, go ahead.

[Philippe Méla]

Mr. Rayes, I just want to confirm with you about the amendment with the reference number 725.

You don't want to move it now; you want to move it later. Is that right?

[Alain Rayes, Conservative, Richmond—Arthabaska, QC]

I think the last amendment just went out by email, much to my surprise. I don't think we wanted it to go out to committee members right away, but it's no big deal. I do not want to discuss it immediately. We can come back to it when we get to clause 9.

[Philippe Méla]

Mr. Chair, can I respond?

[The Chair, Liberal, Scott Simms]

Go ahead, Mr. Méla.

[Philippe Méla]

Okay.

I was talking about the amendment with the reference number ending in 3725.

[The Chair, Liberal, Scott Simms]

Mr. Rayes, when you get a moment, do you want to clarify this?

[Alain Rayes, Conservative, Richmond—Arthabaska, QC]

As I explained, I saw it show up in my inbox, but I didn't think I had given the go‑ahead to send it out to committee members.

You said it was amendment CPC‑9.7, but that does not mean we will not have others in the meantime.

I think you can disregard it, for now.

[The Chair, Liberal, Scott Simms]

Thank you.

Mr. Méla, go ahead.

[Philippe Méla]

If you want to have a side chat, that would be helpful.

[The Chair, Liberal, Scott Simms]

Mr. Rayes and Mr. Méla want to have an offline discussion.

[Philippe Méla]

It was with you, actually, Chair, sorry.

[The Chair, Liberal, Scott Simms]

Ladies and gentlemen, as you've just heard, I'm going to have to suspend.

We'll suspend for two minutes.

[The Chair, Liberal, Scott Simms]

We're back.

First of all, I want to say a huge thank you to our technical staff for all of these breaks, suspensions and so on. Our technical staff handled it masterfully, I might add. We don't say that enough, but we thank you so much.

Let's get back to the amendments at hand. These are amendments regarding clause 7 that just came to us from the Conservative Party.

Mr. Rayes, I want to point something out before we go any further. I feel it's only necessary I do this in the course of debate.

We have from 9.2 up to 9.6 regarding clause 7, and they follow in succession. However, I would like you to have a look at CPC-9.4. The last three reference numbers are 725. I want you to have a look at that for a moment. There is a problem here in the sense that, as you know, we propose these amendments in the order in which they come in the bill itself, which is C-10.

What you're aiming to do in this case, by adding after line 2 on page 8 of clause 7, should have been moved before PV-21.1, which we debated at the last meeting and voted on at this meeting. It should have been done just before that. So CPC-9.4, 725, is not in its right order. The others are. I'm bringing this to your attention now in case you were hoping to incorporate that into your overall debate. Normally, I'd get to it and make a ruling, but I thought maybe you should know now before you proceed any further.

With that in mind, we return to our clause-by-clause consideration.

Right now, we are on amendment CPC-9.2. Again, the last three numbers of the reference number are 583.

Mr. Rayes, I'm going to give you the floor. If you need any points of clarification on the ruling I just made about 9.4, by all means, ask. In the meantime, you can proceed with CPC-9.2. We're still on clause 7.

Go ahead, sir, you have floor.

Sorry, sir, you're on mute. It's still Monday.

[Alain Rayes, Conservative, Richmond—Arthabaska, QC]

What can I say, it's still Monday, and I'm having trouble with my mike.

I just want to make sure I have what you said about amendment CPC‑9.4 right. You aren't refusing to accept it, but you are saying it's not in the right order.

[The Chair, Liberal, Scott Simms]

That is correct.

[Alain Rayes, Conservative, Richmond—Arthabaska, QC]

I didn't have time to take note of which amendment I was supposed to follow.

[The Chair, Liberal, Scott Simms]

I think in this case, 9.4, since we've gone past it, you would need unanimous consent if you wanted to return to it.

[Alain Rayes, Conservative, Richmond—Arthabaska, QC]

All right. I will move it in due course. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I imagine it's time for me to move amendment CPC‑9.2.

The committee is at an impasse given the disagreement over the various parties who post content on social media. As we understand Bill C‑10, the CRTC—