Information & Ethics Committee on Oct. 27th, 2011

[The Chair, NDP, Jean Crowder]

Mr. Butt, I have asked people to stay on the motion, so I will ask the rest of the speakers to stay on the motion.

Are you finished?

[Brad Butt, Conservative, Mississauga—Streetsville, ON]

I will be supporting the motion. It's a very good motion, Madam Chair.

[The Chair, NDP, Jean Crowder]

Thank you, Mr. Butt.

Mr. Andrews.

[Scott Andrews, Liberal, Avalon, NL]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Mr. Del Mastro, you should practise what you preach when you lecture a member of this committee—

[The Chair, NDP, Jean Crowder]

Please, Mr. Andrews.

[Scott Andrews, Liberal, Avalon, NL]

—and then turn around and make those remarks.

[The Chair, NDP, Jean Crowder]

Order, please.

Mr. Andrews, please direct your comments through the chair.

[Scott Andrews, Liberal, Avalon, NL]

Regarding this asinine motion before us, you want to be the judge, jury, and executioner of freedom of information requests, yet you don't even have knowledge of our justice system—or the right to appeal things through our justice system. But now you want to be the information commissioner of Parliament. Putting this information before a committee, unredacted, is totally bizarre. I don't know where this is coming from. I suspect, again, they know the answer to this question; this type of information is before the courts. They're looking for a request on section 68.1 regarding both redacted and unredacted information, and now they want to act as judges of these issues.

Where to go from here? How much longer is this charade going to continue? This is totally unproductive.

I'd like the clerk to read the second part of the motion, where it details the information they want from Quebecor, because it was thrown on the table and we weren't given any notice or research. Could you read the second part, where it talks of Quebecor?

[The Clerk]

It reads, “From Québecor: The access to information requests....”

[Scott Andrews, Liberal, Avalon, NL]

Okay. So this motion is “From Québecor, the access to information requests....” When the president of Quebecor was asked about their 800 freedom of information requests, he didn't deny or confirm them. He said, “Yes, we have a number of requests before the CBC.” So if this motion is passed I expect to see—from Quebecor and every reporter and person employed by Quebecor who requested information—their actual requests to the CBC over the time period we are talking about.

If we're going to go down this road and pass this motion...it specifically says the freedom of information requests from Quebecor. So Quebecor has to provide all the information requests they have put forward to CBC, and then we'll get some idea of what information they're actually looking for. So we'll see where this motion goes.

[The Chair, NDP, Jean Crowder]

I'll ask the clerk to read the whole phrase, because there was a clarifying point in that phrase.

Mr. Mariage, could you read that particular reference to Quebecor, please?

[The Clerk]

That whole section reads:

From Québecor: The access to information request referred to by Pierre Karl Péladeau, at the meeting of Thursday, October 20, 2011.

[The Chair, NDP, Jean Crowder]

Mr. Andrews.

[Scott Andrews, Liberal, Avalon, NL]

I would suggest that was everything the man spoke about at committee that day. At that meeting he was asked point-blank how many requests they had put in, so that will be the information I will expect to see from Quebecor, from this particular motion.

[The Chair, NDP, Jean Crowder]

I have Madam Brosseau, and then I have Mr. Del Mastro.

[Dean Del Mastro, Conservative, Peterborough, ON]

I just want to know if that has been amended.

Specifically, Madam--

[The Chair, NDP, Jean Crowder]

Is that a point of order to clarify if that's an amendment?

[Dean Del Mastro, Conservative, Peterborough, ON]

Yes. Is that an amendment? In his testimony there was only one access to information request that was specifically referred to, which dealt, I believe, with vehicle fleets.

[The Chair, NDP, Jean Crowder]

Okay, thank you, Mr. Del Mastro.

[Scott Andrews, Liberal, Avalon, NL]

If I can actually go back to Mr. Del Mastro...if he wants to review the testimony--and I've brought it up here several times since--he also referred to outdoor advertising and information about a magazine, and he listed a few others. Then when questioned in testimony he acknowledged that, yes, Quebecor has had several hundred requests before CBC.

So if this motion is going to pass as it is, I expect to see that information from Quebecor. If you want to provide information from CBC to discuss this, then let's see all the requests that Quebecor has put in and we'll see where this is going.

[The Chair, NDP, Jean Crowder]

Mr. Andrews, if I could interject here, Mr. Del Mastro has asked if you're proposing an amendment. The clerk has pointed out that there were a number of references in the testimony. We'd have to go back and review the actual testimony to determine how many references there were.

What I hear Mr. Del Mastro asking is, are you proposing an amendment to his motion?

[Scott Andrews, Liberal, Avalon, NL]

If Mr. Del Mastro would like to amend his own motion, he's more than welcome to. We know the outcome if we do an amendment on this side, so I won't be amending it, but we'll be closely watching the request put forward in this motion.

[The Chair, NDP, Jean Crowder]

I'm going to go back to the speakers' list. Mr. Del Mastro, when he comes to his turn, can clarify or specify as he chooses.

Madame Brosseau.

[Ruth Ellen Brosseau, NDP, Berthier—Maskinongé, QC]

I'm going to ask to adjourn and ask for legal advice in camera.

[The Chair, NDP, Jean Crowder]

Is that a motion?

What we have before us is a motion to suspend to seek legal advice in camera.