Evidence of meeting #141 for Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was cra.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative John Brassard
Yes, it's starting with the word “provided”.
I have an amendment on that by Mrs. Shanahan.
I don't know whether you have any comments on that.
Okay, you made your comments.
Liberal
Brenda Shanahan Liberal Châteauguay—Lacolle, QC
I think we heard from Mr. Barrett as well. We don't need a bounty hunter, so I think—
Conservative
Conservative
Frank Caputo Conservative Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I trust you. You've done a lot on this. I don't know why getting a skip tracer is such a big deal. These people don't want to be found.
As much as Mr. Green says he doesn't want to come back to committee on off days, we have now spent 40 minutes talking about this. Do we really want to come back and hear, “These people can't be found”, when we have a respected parliamentarian who can say, “I authorize the expenditure of however much money it would cost”, which would probably pale in comparison with the amount of money we are spending by talking about this? It's ridiculous.
I trust you to do it. I'm going to vote against the amendment.
Thank you.
Conservative
Liberal
Darren Fisher Liberal Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, NS
I put my hand up to say basically what Brenda said.
However, I wonder if you could read out what we have for a motion now.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative John Brassard
Oh, boy. Here we go. Okay.
The clerk has captured it. This is without the approval of Mrs. Shanahan's amendment.
As it stands now, the motion is “That the committee summons Felix Papineau and Shawna Parker to testify before this committee”. Then we changed “December 10” to include “at a date determined by the chair in consultation with the vice-chairs and the NDP, provided”. The motion as it stands right now says, “provided that the chair and clerk be directed to retain, if necessary, the services of a skip tracer to assist with the service of the summonses.”
Now Mrs. Shanahan has proposed an amendment. At the point where “provided” is, the amendment is to remove all of that section of the motion as amended right now, which includes what I said earlier—“at a date determined by the chair in consultation with the vice-chairs and the NDP”.
That's where we're at.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative John Brassard
If Mrs. Shanahan's motion is approved, it would delete from the point of “provided” onward, and everything else would be included.
That's where we're at.
I don't see any other hands.
We are on the amendment proposed by Mrs. Shanahan.
Do we have agreement on the amendment?
We don't. Okay, I'm going to ask the clerk to call the roll.
Go ahead, Madam Clerk, on the amendment proposed by Mrs. Shanahan.
(Amendment agreed to: yeas 5; nays 4 [See Minutes of Proceedings])
We are on the motion as amended. I don't have any other discussion.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative John Brassard
All right.
The motion as amended reads:
That the committee summons Felix Papineau and Shawna Parker to testify before this committee at a date determined by the chair in consultation with the vice-chairs and the NDP.
Is that clear, Mr. Villemure?
I see you agree.
Did you have your hand up, Mr. Caputo?
Conservative
Conservative
Frank Caputo Conservative Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC
Could we please get an update on Thursday? Where are we in terms of success? Is that possible?
Liberal
Conservative
The Chair Conservative John Brassard
I agree with you, Ms. Khalid. I'm going to deal with the motion and then I can provide a quick update.
Liberal
Iqra Khalid Liberal Mississauga—Erin Mills, ON
I have another [Inaudible—Editor] after Mr. Caputo, after the motion, if that's okay.
(Motion as amended agreed to: yeas 10; nays 0 [See Minutes of Proceedings])
Conservative
The Chair Conservative John Brassard
I'm now going to answer Mr. Caputo's question regarding Thursday.
We have reached out to literally everyone as it relates to a couple of things. Number one is the privacy issue study with Uber and some of the others. None of those witnesses were available this week.
We also tried to reach out further on the TikTok study. We got information back from the minister that he's unavailable for an extended period of time.
It was too short notice for CSIS to come to committee on Thursday. Mr. Vigneault, who's part of the witness list, is apparently working in the United States. The clerk is still in the process of trying to contact him.
The Privacy Commissioner was on the motion that was adopted by committee. He was here. Unfortunately, we didn't have the meeting that day because we didn't have quorum. He is out of the country, but he has told me he will be available to appear before the committee. He won't be back for probably another week or so. I fully intend to get the Privacy Commissioner back to discuss the CRA issue, because I think he's a key component to this, and the committee felt that in the motion as well.
As it stands right now, I have nothing for Thursday, just to let you know, in terms of witnesses. Believe me, Nancy's been working the phones this week. Unfortunately, it's just the situation that we're in.
Ms. Khalid, did that address some of the questions you might have had?
Liberal
Iqra Khalid Liberal Mississauga—Erin Mills, ON
No, Chair. I have something to move. I put a motion on notice on November 8.
I move:
With respect to the financial support provided to Canadian politicians for legal fees or other purposes by X, the committee order the production within 7 days:
The names of all Canadian politicians who have received financial support.
How much financial support each has received to date.
How much financial support each is entitled to receive.
The mechanisms in place to ensure that all money is going to intended purposes.
Proof that all money to date has gone to intended purposes and that checks and balances are functioning.
The status of all legal proceedings referred to above.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative John Brassard
I'm going to allow the motion on the floor.
The only question that I have.... It's unclear. You said, “With respect to the financial support provided to Canadian politicians for legal fees or other purposes by X, the committee order the production within 7 days”.
Who are we ordering the production from? This was the issue that we had when this issue was discussed last time.
Who are we asking? Do we even know whether these issues exist?
Liberal
Iqra Khalid Liberal Mississauga—Erin Mills, ON
At the October 24 meeting, Mr. Chair, the representative from X who appeared before the committee confirmed that they are providing funding for a Conservative Party candidate. They also committed to providing the documents and the information that I and members of the committee requested from him. It's now been over a month with no update from X.
The effect of this motion is really to bring in the information that we asked that representative to provide and that he had committed to providing. We're just following up on it.
