Information & Ethics Committee on June 6th, 2024

[Pam Damoff, Liberal, Oakville North—Burlington, ON]

I thought that the amendment carried yesterday, so now we would be on the main motion, Chair. Am I confused here?

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

Just give me a second here.

[Pam Damoff, Liberal, Oakville North—Burlington, ON]

I could be wrong.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

Just to confirm—and thanks to the clerk for this—the Bloc did move an amendment by Mr. Desilets, who is here, and that was adopted. Then, Mr. Barrett moved an amendment, which led to the subamendment that was just adopted.

We're on the amendment to the motion as amended. Does that make sense?

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

Chair, could you read the motion in its current form for us?

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

I will not be able to do it out of my head, but we will—

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

Perhaps circulate it while we suspend.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

Just give me a second here.

Madam clerk, you're on top of this, I know. Can you...?

[The Clerk]

Do you want me to read it or distribute it?

I will read it, and then distribute it because I cannot talk and distribute at the same time.

The text of the motion as amended, twice, now would read:

That, in light of media reports, Minister Randy Boissonnault's testimony at this committee, and the Ethics Commissioner's confirmation that he is considering opening another investigation into Minister Randy Boissonnault's actions, the Committee call on the following witnesses to appear before the committee and testify for one hour:

a. Stephen Anderson;

b. Kirsten Poon;

Now we get into the motion as amended:

And that the Committee request that Stephen Anderson produce for the committee all of his phone records and text messages from September 8, 2022, within 7 days of this motion being adopted.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

That's where we are right now.

I will take a couple of minutes. I'm going to allow the clerk to put it all together and send it out to committee members.

We are going to suspend for a couple of minutes so that you can have a look at this.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

Let's get started again.

For clarification, everybody has the motion as amended. Right now we are on the amendment that was put forward by Mr. Barrett and subamended by Ms. Khalid.

The next speaker is Mr. Villemure. He'll be followed by Mr. Barrett.

Mr. Villemure, you have the floor.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I'm rather sorry that I wasn't here yesterday, because apparently some good discussions took place.

I want to remind my colleagues that we're here in pursuit of the public interest and not the truth, which is a bit complicated. Certainly, in a case of this nature, questions must be asked and answers must be provided. That much is clear.

I think that we should also keep in mind that, in addition to these questions that must be asked, we have work to do. We have a report to revise. The TikTok study and the misinformation study aren't finished.

I can see that we spent five meetings wondering who Randy Boissonnault is. I'm not saying that the question isn't valid. I'm just saying that we need to weigh the pros and cons. We need to figure out where we're headed with this.

I would like to ask my colleagues to act wisely so that we can quickly resolve the matter before us. However, let's try to do so with the public interest in mind. There's a public interest component to all this. The public interest is much broader than knowing who Randy Boissonnault is.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

Thank you, Mr. Villemure.

Mr. Barrett, you have the floor.

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

Mr. Chair, I'd like to move an amendment.

Where the motion reads:

And that the Committee request that Stephen Anderson and Randy Boissonnault produce for the committee all of—

We would replace “his” with the word “their”.

—their phone records, text messages, iMessages, and all instant messages and call logs from all applications from September 8, 2022, within 7 days of this motion being adopted.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

Have you shared that with the clerk at this point?

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

No.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

You're going to have to repeat that very slowly, Mr. Barrett, if you don't mind.

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

I'll send it to the clerk.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

Okay. Send it to the clerk, if you don't mind. Thanks.

[Pam Damoff, Liberal, Oakville North—Burlington, ON]

Shall we suspend, Mr. Chair?

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

How long do you have resources for, Mr. Chair?

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

We have resources until 1.30.

I'm going to have to suspend because I'm going to need it distributed to all the members of the committee in both languages.

We are going to suspend again.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

We're back. I appreciate the patience of everyone.

The clerk has sent the subamendment proposed by Mr. Barrett to everyone.

The subamendment would read:

And that the Committee request that Stephen Anderson and Randy Boissonnault produce for the committee all of their phone records, text messages, iMessages, and all instant messages and call logs from all applications from September 8, 2022, within 7 days of this motion being adopted.

Ms. Damoff.

[Pam Damoff, Liberal, Oakville North—Burlington, ON]

Thanks, Chair.

We won't be supporting the amendment.

I will remind the committee that the committee already asked Mr. Boissonnault for his phone records.

Chair, I wanted to just read what happened that day because there was no follow up. You said:

Thank you, Mr. Green.

On that, I am going to ask the clerk on your behalf, sir, to review the Hansard and to submit the questions that have been asked of Mr. Boissonnault and have him respond to the committee.

Madam Clerk, just make a note of the time on that.

Then you said:

Thank you, sir.

I'm going to take that as a request from Mr. Brock. Again, I'm going to ask the clerk to follow up on that request.

Mr. Boissonnault is attempting to get the records for his ministerial phone. It's not as easy as submitting the records from his personal phone, which he proactively submitted to the committee.

We won't support the amendment from Mr. Barrett. I hope that this doesn't turn into a fishing expedition and that we can deal with this motion this afternoon and move on.

Thank you, Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

Thank you, Ms. Damoff.

I don't have anybody else on the speaking list on the subamendment.

Mr. Barrett.