Evidence of meeting #27 for Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was commons.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Scott Andrews Liberal Avalon, NL
Okay, since we're talking about the amended motion, I'd like to talk about this date as well.
NDP
The Chair NDP Jean Crowder
We're talking about your amendment, and your amendment used the date of March 13. If you could, proceed with your amendment to the motion.
Liberal
Scott Andrews Liberal Avalon, NL
Thank you.
That date now.... Instead of taking this week to deal with this, they want to push this out to next week. Obviously they're trying to get as many legs under this story as possible.
Conservative
Patricia Davidson Conservative Sarnia—Lambton, ON
Madam Chair, with all due respect, he is not debating the amendment that he has on the table, and I would request that you ask him to go back to his own amendment.
Thank you.
NDP
The Chair NDP Jean Crowder
Thank you, Mrs. Davidson.
Mr. Andrews, the date has been dealt with. Could you come back to your proposed amendment?
NDP
The Chair NDP Jean Crowder
The clerk is pointing out that your motion added those additional words around the government resources being used. I don't have the exact wording right in front of me, but it was not about the date. Your motion was about the additional resources that the government was using on these accounts.
Liberal
Scott Andrews Liberal Avalon, NL
Fair enough. I'll park that and come back to that when we get back to debating the motion as a whole.
I'll turn to Twitter—Twitterati, as one of the commentators back home calls them. Quite often he says in his preamble to his talk show, as host, that the Twitterati out there quite often refer to different matters of public discourse and public commentary.
So is it acceptable for any government employee to use Twitter, to use this resource to attack a member of Parliament or someone else? This is something we should look at. Quite often in business places they block the use of social media, so their employees can't use those means of communication. I'm kind of curious now whether we should broaden the scope here and really look into how we use Twitter.
I'll go back to that employee I mentioned a little earlier using government resources to challenge a member of Parliament. His name is Cory Hann, and he's the press secretary to the Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs and President of the Queen's Privy Council. He's got a nice picture of himself there on Twitter looking at his government desk. I can see the Parliament of Canada calendar in the background. He has not only one BlackBerry but two BlackBerrys to use his Twitter account.
I had made a comment on Twitter myself during a debate in the House of Commons when I saw the minister responsible for Newfoundland and Labrador pat the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans on the back as he was sitting down in the House of Commons for what a great answer he gave regarding the death of a boy in Labrador and the use of government resources that didn't help save that young person's life. I put out a tweet that I couldn't believe that the minister for Newfoundland and Labrador would do such a thing on Twitter, and it gained a lot of attention.
NDP
Charlie Angus NDP Timmins—James Bay, ON
You're making an unsubstantiated claim. Could you read that Twitter line out so I know if I've read it or not?
Liberal
Scott Andrews Liberal Avalon, NL
Okay.
I happen to have the whole dialogue here that I had that particular day, Madam Chair. Let me just go back here and see what I said. Oh, yes, I said “Wow, a minister of the crown is patting—”
Conservative
Patricia Davidson Conservative Sarnia—Lambton, ON
Yes, could we please have the amendment reread? I'm not sure he's even debating his own amendment, and we don't have the wording.
NDP
The Chair NDP Jean Crowder
Thank you, Mrs. Davidson.
Mr. Andrews, at the request of a committee member, could you reread your amendment?
Liberal
Scott Andrews Liberal Avalon, NL
I'm going to come back to that.
I thought the clerk had my amendment, Madam Chair.
Liberal
Scott Andrews Liberal Avalon, NL
I know it actually included two dates. I'm pretty sure I read out both dates when I was asked to read this.
NDP
The Chair NDP Jean Crowder
Just read the amendment part. You don't need to read the whole motion, just the amendment part.