Foreign Affairs Committee on Jan. 30th, 2007

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Yes. There were invitations that went out. I'm not certain if the new members of the committee got the invitations. But it is available on our meeting day, and the department and whatever else have all these different groups coming in. We're invited to stay even longer, but especially for those two hours. If the question is do we know which groups are presenting during our two hours, the answer is no. I don't have that schedule yet.

In order to facilitate our meeting at the Congress Centre, and there is no travel, we can just walk down there, but we do have to get permission to leave the Hill. That's what we're asking for, a motion so that basically if we decide to go we can then go down.

Madame Lalonde.

[Francine Lalonde, Bloc, La Pointe-de-l'Île, QC]

I so move.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Merci.

Do we need a seconder on that?

[The Clerk]

No.

(Motion agreed to)

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

All right. I would also say that we have another committee that meets at 11 o'clock, so we want to deal with these motions appropriately.

First listed on the agenda is a notice of motion by the Honourable Albina Guarnieri.

Madam, would you present your motion, please?

[Albina Guarnieri, Liberal, Mississauga East—Cooksville, ON]

Two weeks ago I provided the committee notice of my intent to issue a cordial invitation to the newest member of this committee and our old colleague, Mr. Wajid Khan, an invitation to share the secrets of his Middle East mystery tour with the committee and with Canadians who have already received the bill for his voyage of discovery. I understand that Madame Lalonde shares the public's enthusiasm to learn whether Mr. Khan's journey was an epiphany that showed him the wisdom of the Prime Minister's policies on Israel. Or did his recommendations ask that the Prime Minister see the error of his ways and reverse course on key issues? As such, I understand Madame Lalonde will be offering a friendly amendment to the following motion.

[Francine Lalonde, Bloc, La Pointe-de-l'Île, QC]

Ç'est ça.

[Albina Guarnieri, Liberal, Mississauga East—Cooksville, ON]

I'll read my motion into the record:

That the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development invite Mr. Wajid Khan, the Member of Parliament for Mississauga—Streetsville, and Special Advisor to the Prime Minister for Middle Eastern and South Asian Affairs, to appear before the committee in order to present and discuss his report, or reports, presented to the Prime Minister with respect to the Middle East.

Madame Lalonde has a friendly amendment.

[Francine Lalonde, Bloc, La Pointe-de-l'Île, QC]

May I say right away what I would add, Mr. Chairman?

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Yes, Madame Lalonde.

[Francine Lalonde, Bloc, La Pointe-de-l'Île, QC]

At the end of Ms. Guarnieri's text, I would add the following: “to share his observations and findings concerning his recent visit to the Middle East”, so that we can ask him questions of a more general nature. Among other things, an article in the Globe and Mail caught my attention. Any aid we can secure for the Middle East is appreciated.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Madam Guarnieri accepts that as a friendly amendment.

Mr. Obhrai, would you like to speak to the motion as amended?

[Deepak Obhrai, Conservative, Calgary East, AB]

Absolutely. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

On this motion brought by Madame Albina Guarnieri, while we understand that in the context of Afghanistan and all these things, and that Madame Lalonde has a motion, and while we want to do this, however, the precedent from your own government has been that when they had special advisers appointed, never once have they ever made public what they have said to the Prime Minister. I refer to Madame Mobina Jaffer, who was a special envoy to Sudan; we refer to Roméo Dallaire. So this has been a precedent from your own government, that never before has advice been shared that was going to the Prime Minister.

Secondly, the appointment of Mr. Wajid Khan was to advise the Prime Minister of Canada. His appointment was not to advise us, and neither was it approved by the committee or by anything out here to say that he would make a representation to the committee or anybody else. He has done what he was asked to do by the Prime Minister. He has given the report to the Prime Minister. It is with the Prime Minister, and the Prime Minister can decide whatever course of action he wants to take based on the advice he has received.

So in light of these factors, I don't think it is an appropriate motion. I would probably say it has more to do with, as Madame Albina Guarnieri said in her presentation, that we had a wrong policy toward Israel, and this thing leads us to go toward a more political thing than what the committee should be doing. So I think, based on that, we will be opposing this motion.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Thank you, Mr. Obhrai.

Maybe at this juncture I should also welcome Mr. Khan to this committee.

[Wajid Khan, Conservative, Mississauga—Streetsville, ON]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Certainly we're going to hear from him one way or the other in our committee. It's good to have his input on the committee, but we will come back to Madam Guarnieri and the motion on appearing as a special witness.

[Albina Guarnieri, Liberal, Mississauga East—Cooksville, ON]

This is just a very quick rebuttal. The motion is pretty straightforward, and regardless of his current status, he is free to turn down Canadians' right to know, but he did make public statements to the effect that he would make his findings public. We just heard from Mr. Williams a rather succinct and very pertinent account of accountability, and that is what this motion attempts to do. It's pure and simple.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

In other words, this motion, in your testimony, is more about accountability than about finding out exactly the information that was passed to the Prime Minister in regard to the issue he was asked to report on?

[Albina Guarnieri, Liberal, Mississauga East—Cooksville, ON]

It is about the public's right to know. The public has paid the tab for this trip, and the fact that Mr. Khan made public statements that he would share his knowledge should be considered.

I understand from a clip I saw that even the foreign affairs minister wasn't privy to the findings. This committee always attempts to assist the minister in his work, and hopefully it will shed some light.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Thank you, Madam

Next is Mr. Wilfert, and then Mr. Patry.

[Vivian Barbot, Bloc, Papineau, QC]

Did I not ask to be recognized?

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Okay, we have a whole list here, and I can tell you we have another committee meeting here in two minutes.

Go ahead, Mr. Wilfert.

[Bryon Wilfert, Liberal, Richmond Hill, ON]

Mr. Chairman, I was going to say what Bernard said, so he can go ahead.

[Bernard Patry, Liberal, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

I just want to point out to Mr. Obhrai that in the past there were special envoys from our previous government, the Liberal government. One of them was Mr. David Pratt. Mr. Pratt went to Sierra Leone. There was a public report, and this report was given to every member of Parliament.

That's just to let you know about this. All the special envoys have reported.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Thank you, Mr. Patry.

Next are Mr. Obhrai, Madam McDonough, and Madame Lalonde.