Information & Ethics Committee on April 11th, 2024

[Michael Barrett, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON]

He gave me the floor.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

Hang on a second.

Michael—

[Michael Barrett, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON]

This is not how this works.

Chair, you recognized me, so I'm going to finish my point of order.

The point of order is that it is a practice now where Liberal members look to interrupt Conservatives when they have the floor. Mr. Cooper hasn't even moved his motion and they're already trying to silence him and shut him down—

[Mark Gerretsen, Liberal, Kingston and the Islands, ON]

But he was parachuted in here too.

[Michael Barrett, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON]

—when he's looking to move the motion.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

Okay. Thank you—

[Michael Barrett, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON]

They've created great disorder.

[Mark Gerretsen, Liberal, Kingston and the Islands, ON]

[Inaudible—Editor] parachutes landing here today.

[Michael Barrett, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON]

They've created great disorder.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

Thank you, Mr. Barrett.

I would ask that everybody just calm down. Mr. Cooper has the floor.

I appreciate your point of order. I will ask Mr. Cooper, once he moves that motion, to make sure the clerk has a copy of the motion in both official languages.

[Michael Barrett, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON]

Like we do every time.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

Mr. Cooper, go ahead with your motion.

[Michael Cooper, Conservative, St. Albert—Edmonton, AB]

Mr. Chair, the motion is as follows:

Given that,

media reporting states that a Liberal Party member informed the Liberal candidate for Don Valley North that he was the subject of a CSIS investigation in 2019 and that,

this information could only be obtained from classified national security briefings, with the leak undermining the work of Canada’s intelligence agency and violating Canada’s national security laws and that,

since only select individuals in the Liberal government and Liberal Party would have received this classified information from CSIS, and would have been responsible for sharing this information,

the committee call the following witnesses:

National Director of Liberal Party, Liberal Designate for SITE taskforce, Azam Ishmael

Liberal Designate for SITE taskforce, Braeden Caley

Liberal Designate for SITE taskforce, Mathieu Lafrance

Liberal Campaign Director, Jeremy Broadhurst

Former Chief of Staff to the Minister of Public Safety, Marci Surkes

Former Chief of Staff to the Minister of Public Safety, Zita Astravas

Former Chief of Staff to the Minister of Democratic Institutions, Rob Jamieson

Deputy Chief of Staff to the Prime Minister, Brian Clow

Director of CSIS, David Vigneault

Commissioner of the RCMP, Michael Duheme

National Security and Intelligence Advisor to the Prime Minister, Nathalie Drouin

Other witnesses deemed relevant by the committee

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

Thank you.

[Michael Cooper, Conservative, St. Albert—Edmonton, AB]

I wish to speak to the motion.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

That's fine. Thank you for the motion, Mr. Cooper.

I'm going to rule that the motion is in order. We are in committee business. To be fair to the other members of the committee, I want to make sure they have a copy of it in both official languages.

I understand that the clerk is working on that right now.

[The Clerk of the Committee, Ms. Nancy Vohl]

Yes, I submitted it to translation.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

Okay.

I'm going to suspend for a couple of minutes to ensure that all members have a copy of it.

When we come back, I'm going to give you the floor, Mr. Cooper.

[Michael Cooper, Conservative, St. Albert—Edmonton, AB]

That's perfect.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

Thank you.

The meeting is suspended.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

I call the meeting back to order.

The translated copy of the motion has been shared with members of the committee.

For the benefit of the committee, when we're dealing with motions that are going to be moved, as the chair I would like—and I know the clerk would as well—as a matter of courtesy, to receive them in both official languages. Twenty-five minutes of our time was just spent translating this document.

Before we begin the discussion, I want to make sure that everybody is aware that any discussions are going to go through the chair. There will be no cross-floor discussions at all. We're going to deal with the discussion on the motion at hand. Any disruptions with respect to a point of order just because you don't like what somebody is saying will not be tolerated by the chair. I am asking that if you're going to initiate a point of order, state succinctly what point of order you're raising with respect to the Standing Orders.

I'm not going to let this meeting descend into chaos. I am asking that everybody act like adults because if there is significant disruption, I will suspend the meeting.

With that, we are going to discuss the motion as presented by Mr. Cooper.

I have a list. Mr. Cooper is going first, and then Mr. Brock. I saw Mr. Fisher's hand and I saw Mr. Bains' hand as well. That will be the order in which we have a discussion.

Mr. Cooper, you have the floor. Go ahead.

[Mark Gerretsen, Liberal, Kingston and the Islands, ON]

I have a point of order.

[Anthony Housefather, Liberal, Mount Royal, QC]

I have a point of order.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

Mr. Gerretsen, go ahead on your point of order.

[Mark Gerretsen, Liberal, Kingston and the Islands, ON]

Succinctly, as per your direction, Mr. Chair, I am referring to Standing Order 108(3)(h). Again, if you're going to look that up, it's Standing Order 108(3)(h).

It specifically says that the committee's mandate is to study matters related to reports of the Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, the Office of the Commissioner of Lobbying of Canada, and the Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner pursuant to the Conflict of Interest Act. Matters related to the conflict of interest code for Members of the House of Commons are studied by the House of Commons Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs.

It goes on to say that the committee can also study any legislation or regulation, or propose initiatives that relate to access to information, privacy and ethical standards relating to public office holders.

What I am suggesting to you, Mr. Chair, is that this motion is out of order because it does not fall under the mandate of the committee. This issue is actually currently being studied at PROC, where Mr. Cooper, Mrs. Romanado and I sit. We almost have more PROC members here than we do ethics committee members, to be honest.

I would encourage this discussion to continue in that place, and that Mr. Cooper—who isn't a member of this committee, either—move that in PROC.

I would suggest to you that based on what I've said—based on the standing order that I referenced, which you requested—this motion is not in order and you should rule it out of order.