Evidence of meeting #146 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 tickets.
A recording is available from Parliament.
NDP
Conservative
The Chair Conservative John Brassard
Okay. Wonderful.
Mr. Barrett has moved a motion. We're going to distribute that motion to committee members.
Go ahead, Mr. Barrett. Then I have Ms. Khalid on the motion.
Conservative
Michael Barrett Conservative Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON
Chair, very briefly, given the cost of living crisis Canadians are facing, we can't look past this. Amid the excitement of a pop star coming to Canada, we can't have members of the executive or their exempt staff receiving preferential treatment or pricing to attend those events when the focus of government should be on providing for Canadians. It's that simple. Food bank use is at a record high, with two million Canadians using food banks in a single month.
This motion isn't calling for the appearance of any witnesses. It's not calling for any meetings. What this is calling for is the production of documents. On the committee's return at the end of January, we can consider the information received from PavCo, the Prime Minister's Office and the Prime Minister concerning these tickets. It should be pretty straight up and down when we're talking about individuals who are subject to the Conflict of Interest Act, such as ministers, exempt staff and the Prime Minister.
Of course, it would be completely inappropriate if we were to discover that any of these individuals were using their positions or power to get preferential treatment, when the discharge of their authority should be, at this point, exclusively focused on helping Canadians who are struggling.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative John Brassard
Thank you, Mr. Barrett. There are paper copies that are being circulated in both languages.
Ms. Khalid will be followed by Mr. Villemure on the motion.
Liberal
Iqra Khalid Liberal Mississauga—Erin Mills, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate that.
It's really nice to have this meeting here today, although I had hoped that we would spend more time on issues that, quite frankly, have a greater impact on Canadians. I know that we had started the study on Uber and ride-share companies and their impact on the privacy of Canadians, on the use of surcharges and how those charges go through the hands of gig workers and the gig economy, and yet here we are, once again neglecting the real work that we should be doing and putting forward a whole bunch of very partisan mumbo-jumbo to debate here in this committee, knowing full well what the outcome is going to be.
I am quite disappointed, Chair, that we did not go down the path of actual work in ethics. Having said that, I think that I may be able to support this motion as I go through it, but I would make some substantial amendments to this motion as it is. If it is indeed just a production of documents, I don't see why we would delay it when Minister Sajjan has clearly said exactly what happened, but I do find that there are some mistakes, at least in the very ridiculous preamble of this motion.
As I review it, I'm sure that my colleagues would want to speak up. Perhaps in a little while, I can present an amendment based on what I think would take away the partisanship of this motion and actually accept documents that—
I'm sorry; what was that, Mr. Caputo?
Conservative
Liberal
Iqra Khalid Liberal Mississauga—Erin Mills, ON
I just wanted to clarify whether there was anything that I said that was maybe hurtful or something.
Liberal
Iqra Khalid Liberal Mississauga—Erin Mills, ON
Thank you. I look forward to returning the favour.
As I said, I'll pause for a moment and cede the floor to some of my colleagues as I look to see if we can work together to build a more consensus-filled motion on this issue.
Conservative
Bloc
René Villemure Bloc Trois-Rivières, QC
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I'd like to ask my esteemed colleague whether he'd consider inviting Taylor Swift to testify, so we could get a more complete picture,
Conservative
The Chair Conservative John Brassard
Okay.
Thank you, Mr. Villemure.
My daughter might like that kind of meeting.
I now have Mrs. Shanahan.
Go ahead, Mrs. Shanahan.
Liberal
Brenda Shanahan Liberal Châteauguay—Lacolle, QC
Thank you, Chair.
I'll continue along the same lines as my colleague.
All kidding aside, the whole Taylor Swift phenomenon seems to be capturing the imagination of parliamentarians here and the general public. I don't want to offend Ms. Swift, but I have to admit that I tried to listen to her music and I don't understand anything about it. That must be normal. Among the committee members, only Mr. Villemure and I grew up in the rock-and-roll era, with giants like Janis Joplin, right?
I'm less familiar with the music of the 1990s. On the other hand, I know Robert Charlebois, Harmonium and all those groups that weren't just bands; there was poetry in their songs. Their lyrics spoke to people of my generation.
The virtue of celebrities is that they're able to touch the imagination of a generation; that's what makes them charismatic. That's how I see Ms. Swift. I felt the same way about Madonna. I never understood Madonna, even though she had some good dance songs. And yet, we're exactly the same age. Finally, popular tastes aren't necessarily everyone's cup of tea.
Getting back to the motion, it's possible that Ms. Swift's management team may have been involved in distributing the tickets. From what I've read, Ms. Swift is a businesswoman. She's often been involved in distributing tickets to her shows. She's very dedicated to her business. So that could be an interesting aspect.
My colleague Ms. Khalid talked about the production of documents. Those documents were probably disclosed in accounting reports that are public. Normally, it takes a while to get access. In fact, I don't know if they're really accessible. I could be wrong. I'm not aware of all the administrative details, of all the issues that may arise.
It should be noted that the tickets were offered in exchange for a donation to a food bank. In the end, the tickets weren't accepted, but donations were still made. I think there was goodwill on both sides. If I understand correctly, Ms. Swift's messages deal with happiness, being kind to one another and so on.
However, you don't have to be nice to former lovers; she stops there. That's prohibited, and I understand her in that regard.
December 17th, 2024 / 11:55 a.m.
Conservative
Frank Caputo Conservative Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC
If the Liberals are going to filibuster, they might as well keep it on point. This has nothing to do.... Pretty soon, we're going to start hearing about Travis Kelce. The reality is—
Conservative
Conservative
The Chair Conservative John Brassard
Mr. Caputo, I understand your point.
Mrs. Shanahan has the floor. She can speak for as long as she wants. I'm sure she's going to bring it back to where we need it to be, but I generally, as you know, give a lot of latitude to what members can say.
I'm going to go back to Mrs. Shanahan because she has the floor.
Liberal
Brenda Shanahan Liberal Châteauguay—Lacolle, QC
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Actually, I'm speaking specifically to the motion. It was a good thing that you put on your earpiece, Mr. Caputo. That way, you'll understand my arguments and how I feel about the motion.
Taylor Swift is mentioned in it and that topic is considered important. Apparently, her show is linked to the issue of affordability, particularly to the fact that people have to use food banks. Donations to food banks are also at issue. I think that this still heads in the right direction. Ms. Swift still serves as an inspiration, even though there may have been an additional donation to a food bank in this case. I imagine that most of her fans followed her example.
She's very popular with people in general, somewhat like Justin Bieber. His fans were part of a certain generation and his songs were perfect for dancing. Mr. Harper's children were apparently among his fans. They attended some of his concerts. Perhaps we should explore the phenomenon of stars and why people want to attend their concerts so much. That's a bit of a philosophical question, I think.
If not everyone can afford to attend a popular star's concert, does that mean no one should? I'm looking at Mr. Villemure, who is very familiar with these kinds of questions combining ethics and logic. Of course, there are poor people who would have liked to see Taylor Swift's concert, but for whom it was impossible. Does that mean that no one should have attended? Some people paid a very high price for their tickets; others won them in a contest. Not everyone had that opportunity. A rather pointed question arises here.
I have to switch to English.
It's the dog-in-the-manger problem.
The dog can't eat hay and he won't let anyone else eat hay. Some parliamentarians may have been very disappointed not to be able to attend the Taylor Swift concert. A survey should be done to determine Taylor Swift's popularity by age and political party. Those are the questions I have when I see a motion of this kind. I'm wondering what the purpose of all this is. Is it to punish certain people? In my opinion—this may also be the opinion of Mr. Barrett, who moved the motion—this music was sometimes rather in dubious taste.
I'll leave it at that, Mr. Chair.
