Foreign Affairs Committee on April 3rd, 2008

[Deepak Obhrai, Conservative, Calgary East, AB]

Mr. Chair, the accusation of my not making this committee work is absolutely ridiculous.

Nevertheless, the point is that—as we discussed this matter down in the steering committee—the subcommittee on human rights is the appropriate place for this to be in. So the work is not being stopped; the work is getting done. There is not a question about this.

The issue on Radarsat was that it was a time-sensitive issue. Mr. Dewar wants something practical. Obviously it's an NDP motion. So as far as I am concerned, it doesn't really matter to us whether they come along or not, but it's up to them. Anyway, if the opposition is not willing to do that—

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Pardon me, Mr. Obhrai, but in all fairness here, we need some type of a motion. You've asked for consent, but are you asking to suspend debate on this?

[Deepak Obhrai, Conservative, Calgary East, AB]

I am seeking to know the views here before I put the motion. There is no point in putting a motion and letting my debate go, if, the way I see it, heads are just twisting and saying no, which is the usual thing. Whenever I speak the opposition will always say no. So they have to—

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Madame Barbot.

[Vivian Barbot, Bloc, Papineau, QC]

I really don't understand how the parliamentary secretary, who is always telling us that he represents the government, can come here this afternoon and, without even discussing it with the person making the motion, ask us to substitute Mr. Dewar's motion for mine, whereas we have been working on it for several weeks.

I would like to hear his explanation. Why this change? What is his aim? Is he going to guarantee to us that in the next five minutes he will be adopting Mr. Dewar's motion? That would be a fine proposal on his part.

[Deepak Obhrai, Conservative, Calgary East, AB]

Yes, that's very good. I still have 195 countries to speak about.

Okay, I am saying this. The Dewar motion is time-sensitive, this one is not, and we had agreed that this could very easily go down to the subcommittee, which had agreed to do that.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Mr. Obhrai, why is Mr. Dewar's motion time-sensitive? Is that the date in April it has extended to, and it's specific to that date in April?

[Deepak Obhrai, Conservative, Calgary East, AB]

Yes, that's right. That's why I'm saying....

In the meantime, I'm also saying that this one, where Madame Barbot says she has worked so much, is not off the table. It goes back to the subcommittee on human rights, which has agreed to listen to that.

I'm just putting this as a suggestion.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

It's a suggestion. All right.

[Deepak Obhrai, Conservative, Calgary East, AB]

Yes, this is the suggestion I'm putting forward. If it is agreeable, then we will move this there and we will go back to Mr. Dewar's motion and move forward to getting other business done.

There are a lot of motions over here that need to be looked after and done. So I am suggesting, if Madame Barbot accepts that this motion moves to the subcommittee on human rights, that's fine with us. Then we will move it with Mr. Dewar's motion.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Is it fine with you, if you were to move Mr. Dewar's motion ahead of Madame Barbot's, if she is not willing to have it go to subcommittee, because we've already spoken about that, to then come back to this motion?

[Deepak Obhrai, Conservative, Calgary East, AB]

No. We would like to have this motion go to the subcommittee first.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

That would be your preference.

[Deepak Obhrai, Conservative, Calgary East, AB]

It would give us the opportunity to move forward.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

You're saying there's only one option here, and that's to leapfrog Mr. Dewar's ahead and send hers to the subcommittee, but you would not look at doing Mr. Dewar's first and then coming back to this one.

[Deepak Obhrai, Conservative, Calgary East, AB]

If, for example, to Madame Barbot also, the subcommittee on human rights for some reason comes along and says that they have difficulty doing this, she can always bring back this motion again. As you know, the opposition will have to work this out anyway.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

We do have a problem, Mr. Obhrai, because we've already debated sending it to the subcommittee.

[Deepak Obhrai, Conservative, Calgary East, AB]

It doesn't matter, I'm putting the suggestion again. I know you've debated it. I'm putting it again. We debated something else in the steering committee as well, but that didn't happen, so the opposition.... I'm just putting this motion forward so we can get Mr. Dewar's--

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

So it is a motion.

[Deepak Obhrai, Conservative, Calgary East, AB]

Well, no, I'm asking for an opinion here. Is she agreeable that we put a motion?

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

We would need a consensus, and I don't sense right now that we have that consensus, so we'll continue debate on Madame Barbot's motion.

She says no.

[Deepak Obhrai, Conservative, Calgary East, AB]

She's saying no, so we are not accepting a time-sensitive motion from the NDP. Is that what...? At this committee, I want it very clear, so the Liberals who are sitting out there can understand what is happening here. We have a time-sensitive motion that's sitting out there and we don't want to debate it, but we want to debate a motion here brought by Madame Barbot, which is not time-sensitive, right, and then we say this committee is not working. Am I getting it clear?

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

I don't want to take up all the debate on the motions, but what I'm saying is if your motion would have been to go to Mr. Dewar's motion and then come back to Madame Barbot's, that might have been acceptable, but we've already debated the fact of which committee would do it. That may be an option to her. That may not be.

[Deepak Obhrai, Conservative, Calgary East, AB]

That's what I'm asking, if this is an option to vote and I can put this forward and if she agrees in the spirit of cooperation, move forward.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

But she has said no to sending it to the subcommittee.