Information & Ethics Committee on May 16th, 2024

[Iqra Khalid, Liberal, Mississauga—Erin Mills, ON]

I would encourage you to also do the same.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

Ms. Khalid, go through the chair, please.

Mr. Brock, I appreciate your point of order. As you know, I do give a lot of latitude on this committee for discussion. I expect that Mr. Fisher will bring it back to the topic at hand, as I expect all members to.

I'm going to stop everybody right here. We talked earlier about the issue with the interpreters. When everybody is screaming over Zoom, that doesn't help to prevent injury to the interpreters. I'm going to ask, if there's any respect at all, that you at least have some for the interpreters, because I will work with the audio people to cut off members to avoid injury to the interpreters.

Mr. Fisher, you have four minutes and 43 seconds. Go ahead, sir.

[Darren Fisher, Liberal, Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, NS]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

This isn't how a well-functioning committee should work. You've told members in the past that you would consult and discuss with them before doing things like this and moving in this direction.

Mr. Chair, I would strongly and respectfully suggest that you find some time on Tuesday to allow the committee to come up with and decide on a work plan for the rest of the year. I think that would be very beneficial for us.

For those reasons and more, I move that the meeting be now adjourned.

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

Team cover-up, here they come.

[Larry Brock, Conservative, Brantford—Brant, ON]

Yes. Brilliant.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

I missed that. What did he do?

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

He moved to adjourn. He moved to cover up the failure to release the Winnipeg lab documents.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

Thank you, Mr. Barrett. That's enough.

Mr. Fisher has moved to adjourn the meeting. He's asked that this meeting not continue, in spite of the fact that we have witnesses here. It's a non—

[Iqra Khalid, Liberal, Mississauga—Erin Mills, ON]

Mr. Chair, I don't think a commentary on your part is appropriate.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

I'm explaining again, Ms. Khalid. We went through this the last time this happened.

For those who are watching, Mr. Fisher has moved to adjourn this meeting, to stop the meeting from proceeding. It is a dilatory motion, which means it is non-debatable. I have an obligation as the chair to go to the clerk—I don't think we have consensus—to ask for a recorded division.

Madam Clerk, please, let's have a recorded division.

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

Mr. Villemure appears to be frozen on Zoom.

I can try again. I don't know if Mr. Villemure can hear me or not. If not, the—

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

I would prefer that we wait for Mr. Villemure to reconnect. It may not make a difference on the vote, but it's out of respect for Mr. Villemure.

[Larry Brock, Conservative, Brantford—Brant, ON]

What's René's vote?

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

We don't know because he's frozen on Zoom.

Now he's disappeared from the screen. I believe he's trying to reconnect. I'm going to suspend for a minute until we get back.

[Darren Fisher, Liberal, Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, NS]

With all due respect, Mr. Chair, you can't suspend for a minute if a member is out of the room. It's exactly the same if he's off-line.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

I'm not so sure about that.

[Damien Kurek, Conservative, Battle River—Crowfoot, AB]

I have a point of order.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

I'm going to consult the clerk on that because it's the first time I've dealt with anything like it, Mr. Fisher. Stand by.

For the record, we're not suspended at this point.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

Mr. Villemure, we're waiting for your vote.

Madam Clerk, the floor is yours.

[René Villemure, Bloc, Trois-Rivières, QC]

Mr. Chair, I'm back.

[The Clerk]

Mr. Villemure, I'm going to give you the context.

The vote is on Mr. Fisher's motion to adjourn the meeting. Everyone voted except you, since you were having technical difficulties.

[René Villemure, Bloc, Trois-Rivières, QC]

I vote against the motion.

(Motion agreed to: yeas 6; nays 4)

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

The motion to adjourn the meeting has been approved. I have no other obligation as the chair but to adjourn the meeting.