Evidence of meeting #55 for Foreign Affairs and International Development in the 39th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was agreed.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kevin Sorenson
Order.
This is meeting number 55. We are going to move into committee business.
At the end of the last day we were discussing a motion that was brought forward by Mr. Patry. Has this been amended?
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kevin Sorenson
The motion reads:
That pursuant to Standing Order 108(2), the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development asks that the Department of National Defence provide a fulsome monthly table of the number of prisoners captured during our mission to date, how many have been handed over to Afghan authorities, and any records, if available, of their present status. This reporting is to coincide with the appearance of the Canadian officials and diplomats who wrote the report entitled Afghanistan 2006: Good Governance, Democratic Development and Human Rights before the Standing Committee.
When we left off the last day, does our clerk know who was speaking?
The Clerk of the Committee Mrs. Angela Crandall
I think you were at Mr. Wilfert. No? Mr. Dosanjh.
Liberal
Ujjal Dosanjh Liberal Vancouver South, BC
Do you mean that this reporting “commences” with the appearance of the Canadian officials?
Liberal
Ujjal Dosanjh Liberal Vancouver South, BC
No, “commences”, because if it coincides, that means whenever they appear next, and the following time, only then the report is made.... Are you asking for a monthly report?
Liberal
Bernard Patry Liberal Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC
A monthly report till now.... It's very diplomatic. We're just asking for a number; we're not asking for the name. We just want to see what the people are doing and that's it.
Yes, “coincide”.
Conservative
Deepak Obhrai Conservative Calgary East, AB
I just want to ask the committee how our position was stated last time. Has the government's position been recorded?
The Clerk
Nothing is recorded until the motion is voted on, actually. It's moved, debated, and--
Conservative
Conservative
Deepak Obhrai Conservative Calgary East, AB
So I'm going to just repeat very quickly that due to the operational requirements, taking into account the Access to Information Act, which states that information may be exempted from release, as it could prove injurious to the conduct of Canada's international affairs.... The release of this information would be very beneficial to the enemy for information, for operations, and for this reason we cannot support this motion. That's the government's position, and it won't change, so I suggest we ask the question and vote on it.
Conservative
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kevin Sorenson
All right. We've had a call for the question on this motion.
(Motion agreed to)
Conservative
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kevin Sorenson
No, listen, we're in committee business here, and I want to deal with one of those things that the chair never wants to deal with.
Liberal
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kevin Sorenson
Yes, that's exactly what I want to deal with, and I want to deal with it in public.
Is this the China...?
The Clerk
No, this is the report from the subcommittee on what we suggested...the steering committee report.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kevin Sorenson
Okay, so we'll go back to something else, then.
Perhaps you have your steering committee report there. Your steering committee met on Tuesday afternoon and we came forward with these recommendations and this report:
That the Committee refer the Third Report to the Subcommittee on International Human Rights concerning the issue of “comfort women” back to the Subcommittee for further study.
Are we in favour of this? The reason for this is they just did not have the witnesses, so we aren't about to deal with it. We'll send it back to the committee. Is there consensus on that?
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kevin Sorenson
The second one is that the committee invite the Auditor General to appear before the committee.... This is in regard to her report. It probably will not be until the fall, but we'll leave that to the clerk. And this is with the DFAIT officials. Are you agreed?