Foreign Affairs Committee on Feb. 4th, 2021

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Respectfully to all, a few people have mentioned that the minister has issued a statement on that. I don't know what that has to do with the question of this amendment, which is, when a committee comes to a conclusion, do we just decide that among ourselves and leave it there, or do we do our function, which is to come to conclusions that we then report to the rest of our colleagues?

We're tasked, as the foreign affairs committee, with focusing on particular issues, developing expertise on them and then reporting those conclusions to the House. On issues dealing with the Good Friday accords, on issues dealing with any number of other things, why would we choose to report those matters to the House and then on a case dealing with UNRWA, where there seems to be substantial agreement on the concern, at least based on what people are saying, why would we decide in that case not to report it to the House?

If it's an important issue, which I think it is, and if the government has something to say on the issue, which by all indications it does, and if we want our colleagues to take note of it, then of course we should do our job, which is to report this and inform the House.

Colleagues, if we choose not to, I think it communicates to the public something about the seriousness with which we take this issue. Given that we have chosen to present it to the House, in every case in the past when we've adopted motions like this, why would we not do that in this particular case? I think that would raise big and legitimate questions.

I'll leave it there. Thanks.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sven Spengemann]

Thank you, Mr. Genuis.

Mr. Oliphant.

[Rob Oliphant, Liberal, Don Valley West, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I want to make a couple of points on this. In no way do I think I am trying to make this a silent or a private motion. This is a motion that'll be passed by committee, and all motions that are passed by our committee are in the public realm. This will be a public statement from this committee. I would agree with Mr. Genuis in that the reality is, if we do a study, if we engage and have witnesses and do that full work of a study, we should report it to the House. That is not this case.

This is our making statements as parliamentarians. All our colleagues can find out about it. If we wanted to, we could send it to them. There's no reason the chair can't make this a wider distribution of a motion. It is the reporting back to the House and having a House debate on this issue that I don't think will be helpful in the Canadian realm. It is not helpful in a pandemic. It does not strengthen our relationship. It does not build the structures for peace in the Middle East that we are trying to do. That is why I don't think it should go to the House as a report from us.

I don't think we've done that kind of work on this. It will be a public motion. There's no way that this is quiet. It is there. It is something this committee has stated, and that is our responsibility as members. We can do it as individuals. Frankly, if someone in the House wants to raise this issue, they have the right to have a motion. They have the right to all kinds of other ways that this can be raised in the House. The work of this committee is not furthered by our reporting it to the House, so I think it is better for us to leave it here and monitor the situation. If there is a repeated problem, we should do a study, and we should address it there in a thorough way, but that's not what we've done today.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sven Spengemann]

Thank you, Mr. Oliphant.

Dr. Fry.

[Hedy Fry, Liberal, Vancouver Centre, BC]

Thank you, Chair.

I reiterate what Mr. Oliphant said.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sven Spengemann]

Thank you very much, Dr. Fry.

Mr. Morantz.

[Marty Morantz, Conservative, Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley, MB]

Mr. Chair, I think my points were made by Mr. Chong and Mr. Genuis, so I'll withdraw my hand.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sven Spengemann]

Thank you very much.

Colleagues, I'm mindful of the time, but also don't want to short-circuit our discussion. I think we had a fulsome exchange on this subamendment. Are colleagues ready to vote on Mr. Oliphant's subamendment?

Madam Clerk, perhaps we should also do a recorded vote on this, just for precision and clarity.

(Subamendment agreed to: yeas 7; nays 4)

That takes us to, if I'm not completely mistaken, Mr. Chong's main motion. Is there any further discussion on the motion as amended?

[Michael Chong, Conservative, Wellington—Halton Hills, ON]

I'd like to have a recorded vote just because it's not clear who supported it and who didn't. I want to indicate my support.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sven Spengemann]

Thank you, Mr. Chong.

Madam Clerk, we'll go to a recorded vote on the main motion.

(Motion as amended agreed to: yeas 11; nays 0 [See Minutes of Proceedings])

Colleagues, that takes us to the end of that discussion point.

We are going to reconnect in camera. I am very mindful of the time. We are going to have to do a hard stop at 6:15. That gives us, minus connection time, about 45 minutes to make progress on the interim report.

[Proceedings continue in camera]