Foreign Affairs Committee on March 7th, 2011

[Deepak Obhrai, Conservative, Calgary East, AB]

What's your compromise?

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

It was written by people who were looking at writing the law.

[Deepak Obhrai, Conservative, Calgary East, AB]

If you don't like the title, what's your compromise?

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

What the title is on the front. Respect Canadians and their intelligence. You don't have to put it in monosyllabic phrases.

[Deepak Obhrai, Conservative, Calgary East, AB]

Am I to understand you don't want a title at all?

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

No short title.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Okay, no short title?

[Bob Rae, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

What about the Freezing Assets of Foreign Officials Act? Isn't that what we're doing?

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

It's a little bit of alliteration, at least.

[Deepak Obhrai, Conservative, Calgary East, AB]

We'll have to check with the officials here.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Hold on one second.

Mr. Dorion.

[Jean Dorion, Bloc, Longueuil—Pierre-Boucher, QC]

What has been suggested—I am not sure by whom, since I listen to the interpretation and do not always hear the speakers' voices—is to call it the “Freezing Assets of Foreign Officials Act.” I think this summarizes the whole idea well and is an appropriate short version of the long title of the act. However, if we use the wording “corrupt regimes,” we are introducing an idea that is not at all clearly expressed in the long title.

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

Number one. That's why.

[Bob Rae, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

That's the one that was written by your political advisers.

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

Why not just take it out? Why do we have to have a short title?

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

In the interest of time, why don't we just vote against the short title?

[James Lunney, Conservative, Nanaimo—Alberni, BC]

Wait. I've been trying to get on the agenda.

I agree with what Mr. Rae mentioned. All these guys have been asking questions for the last.... Mr. Dorion has been asking what the government is doing to freeze the assets. He used that language all the way through this debate. This bill is designed to address those concerns, so I think it is appropriate to use that language.

One suggestion we just heard had to do with freezing the assets of foreign officials. That might make some of our diplomats nervous around here. I think the word “corrupt” is probably helpful, because it's not just any old official. There is some sense of wrongdoing here.

So I think the short title speaks to what we're trying to accomplish here, and I'm not so sure what the angst is about.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Mr. Dorion.

[Jean Dorion, Bloc, Longueuil—Pierre-Boucher, QC]

So why is the word “corrupt” not in the long title, if that is what we mean to say? In my opinion, the short version adds an element that does not appear in the long title.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Okay.

[Jean Dorion, Bloc, Longueuil—Pierre-Boucher, QC]

I officially propose that we use the wording “corrupt officials and former officials of foreign states” in the long title. Why not?

[Deepak Obhrai, Conservative, Calgary East, AB]

Yes, but I think my friend has a good idea—get rid of it.

[Bob Rae, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

Well, let's put instead the Freezing Assets of Corrupt Foreign Officials Act.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Is that a suggestion we'd look at?

[Dave Van Kesteren, Conservative, Chatham-Kent—Essex, ON]

But it's not just foreign officials. There is a whole list of everyone to whom it can apply.