Canadian Heritage Committee on Feb. 13th, 2023

[Marilyn Gladu, Conservative, Sarnia—Lambton, ON]

I'm sorry.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you very much.

I'm going to go to the final round for the Liberals.

Mr. Housefather, you have five minutes, please.

[Anthony Housefather, Liberal, Mount Royal, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair. Hopefully, I won't take all five minutes.

I have a couple of questions.

First of all, to clarify, my understanding is that the only Department of Canadian Heritage contract that CMAC received was this one for $133,000 on the anti-racism strategy. There were no others from that department.

[Mala Khanna]

That's correct.

[Anthony Housefather, Liberal, Mount Royal, QC]

Okay, perfect.

The CRTC, as you said, is an independent third party organization, and costs awarded by the CRTC are independent of the department.

[Mala Khanna]

That is correct.

[Anthony Housefather, Liberal, Mount Royal, QC]

Good.

Coming back to what Mr. Shields mentioned, I think we all understand that the initial granting of the monies was through a process that needed to be fixed. I mean, nobody was responsible for making a mistake because that was what the process was.

I think the clarity that people want is why there was no accountability for the time frame between the time that the minister was first alerted of this on July 18 and the actual suspension on August 19. I think that's where people are confused. That's not a process question; that's a question of whether things were taken seriously.

Do you have any response to that?

[Mala Khanna]

I understand the question. What I can say is that there is no place for anti-Semitism. The time it took was really an effort to understand the situation, and yes, it took too long.

[Anthony Housefather, Liberal, Mount Royal, QC]

I have to tell you something, because I think it's important. It's just an impression, which certainly might not be justified.

The two groups that were most vilified by Mr. Marouf were Quebeckers and Jews. Both groups feel that if it had been any other group, the reaction would have been quicker. Can you assure me that this is not the case?

[Mala Khanna]

Yes. Thank you.

I can assure you. On the work the department has done both to ensure that both official languages are respected and celebrated in the programming we do, and to ensure that anti-Semitism is combatted with the programming we do, whether it's the summit we had on anti-Semitism or round tables, we need to continue our efforts. We need to be vigilant. We understand that hate is going up and that anti-Semitism is an integral part of Canada's anti-racism strategy. We need to continue efforts to ensure it is understood in terms of how it is manifest in society, but also within our institutions. That is the work we are engaged in.

[Anthony Housefather, Liberal, Mount Royal, QC]

Thank you very much for your time. I appreciate it.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

[Kevin Waugh, Conservative, Saskatoon—Grasswood, SK]

Madam Chair, could I have a point of order here, if you don't mind, just for a second?

I'm wondering if we could get any communication from the Department of Canadian Heritage to Mr. Marouf and CMAC, and any back from CMAC to the department, from August 2 to today.

What we have here, Madam Chair, is one minister spending the money and now the other, Minister Rodriguez, trying to collect the money. I'm just wondering if we could get any communication—emails—provided by the department to us.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Mr. Waugh, I think Mr. Shields already asked for that in his presentation.

What I want to say is that the clerk has duly noted all the documents requested by every single one of the committee members. I think those should be sent as soon as possible by the department, and they will be distributed to everyone on the committee.

I just need to say that we must go—

[Martin Champoux, Bloc, Drummond, QC]

A point of order, Madam Chair.

Again, we don't have interpretation into French.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

I'm sorry. What is going on, please? Are the interpreters there?

[The Clerk of the Committee, Mr. Michael MacPherson]

I'm sorry, Dr. Fry. There is an issue, I believe, with your headset, and interpretation is having difficulties interpreting for you. That's where we are at.

[Martin Champoux, Bloc, Drummond, QC]

Madam Chair, the interpreters have pointed out to us several times during the meeting today that the sound quality of your microphone is inadequate for interpretation. So that should be checked, but at the moment, the interpreters can't do their job.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

The problem is that I am using the required headset by the House of Commons, so I want us to make sure that we do have interpretation now.

Is there interpretation?

[Martin Champoux, Bloc, Drummond, QC]

No.

[The Clerk]

No. There is a technical issue where the sound quality coming from your set-up today is not adequate for interpretation at the present time.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Can we work on getting that done quickly?

[Chris Bittle, Liberal, St. Catharines, ON]

I have a point of order.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

How long do we have before we end this meeting, Mr. Clerk?

[The Clerk]

There are 15 minutes remaining in today's meeting. There is also a—

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Do we have extra time?