Evidence of meeting #21 for Foreign Affairs and International Development in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was chair.
A video is available from Parliament.
1:10 p.m.
Conservative
Garnett Genuis Conservative Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB
Mr. Chair, I think we should adjourn debate on the motion until we're finished the work that we've already programmed out to do.
Whether that's a debatable motion or not, I suppose, depends on the rules. My intention was to say, precisely, that we should finish the work we're doing.
1:10 p.m.
Bloc
The Vice-Chair Bloc Stéphane Bergeron
What you just said isn't exactly what you said earlier.
You are moving a motion to adjourn. Did you want to move such a motion, or did you prefer to continue debating the motion you moved earlier?
1:10 p.m.
Conservative
Garnett Genuis Conservative Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB
Mr. Chair, the motion I want to put forward is to table consideration of this until after our existing studies are complete. Does that entail a condition or not? Okay.
1:10 p.m.
Bloc
The Vice-Chair Bloc Stéphane Bergeron
All right. We will begin debate on Mr. Genuis's motion.
Does anyone wish to comment?
I have Ms. Bendayan on my list.
Ms. Bendayan, did you want to comment on Mr. Genuis's motion?
1:10 p.m.
Liberal
Rachel Bendayan Liberal Outremont, QC
Mr. Chair, in the few minutes we had left, I would have liked us to vote on Ms. Fry's motion. That's what I was going to propose, but I see that certain individuals would rather play political games.
The issue before us today is important for both Quebeckers and Canadians. I really wanted the committee to vote on the matter.
We've already talked about the motion to table the discussion. We could refer the motion to the subcommittee to block off time once our current studies are finished.
Since committee members see this as worthwhile, I don't understand why we can't vote on the motion before us and leave it to the subcommittee to schedule the dates for the fall. That's precisely what Mr. Genuis asked for.
The opposition members are trying to prevent us from voting on the motion. That is sorely disappointing.
1:10 p.m.
The Clerk
Mr. Genuis has his hand up, Mr. Chair.
1:10 p.m.
Conservative
Garnett Genuis Conservative Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
With respect to Ms. Bendayan's comments, I think it's legitimate for the subcommittee to discuss this issue. If this motion is adopted by the committee, then it is being highly prescriptive about certain aspects of the approach that the subcommittee will take.
I suggest that the subcommittee consider this, along with the very interesting motion by Ms. Bendayan about the Wagner Group. Frankly, I didn't even know we were at the stage of proposing new ideas. There are obviously lots of other possibilities.
We have an obligation as a standing committee of the House of Commons to prioritize legislation, period. I know we don't have legislation in front of us—
1:10 p.m.
Liberal
Rob Oliphant Liberal Don Valley West, ON
On a point of order, that's the second time, theoretically, it has been—
1:10 p.m.
Liberal
Rob Oliphant Liberal Don Valley West, ON
—suggested that we have a piece of legislation. We have to respect the members of the House of Commons who will need to vote on that piece of legislation. It is not in order to bring it up at this meeting. I let it go the last time.
We'll deal with any piece of legislation when it comes to this committee at the will of the House of Commons and we will do our work on that, not what has been done at the other place. That is its own work. We will do our work as a committee if and when we get a piece of legislation that could pass or may not.
1:15 p.m.
Conservative
Garnett Genuis Conservative Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB
On the same point of order, very briefly, we're talking about the forward—
1:15 p.m.
Bloc
The Vice-Chair Bloc Stéphane Bergeron
Pardon me, Mr. Genuis, but Ms. Pereira wants to say something.
Ms. Pereira, did you want to jump in?
1:15 p.m.
The Clerk
I just wanted to tell you that Mr. Chong wished to speak.
1:15 p.m.
Conservative
Garnett Genuis Conservative Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB
Mr. Chair, I wanted to comment on the point of order that we're having a discussion about the forward agenda of the committee. It's fairly reasonable to talk about the fact that it seems likely, to me, based on the positions of the parties, that we are going to have two items of legislation before this committee.
1:15 p.m.
Conservative
Garnett Genuis Conservative Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB
I don't dispute that it might change. Lots of things might change. The government could call an election. It's happened before. There are things that could happen that we don't expect to see happen.
If Mr. Oliphant wishes to vote against my bill to criminalize forced organ harvesting and trafficking, that's his prerogative, I suppose.
1:15 p.m.
Liberal
Rob Oliphant Liberal Don Valley West, ON
On a point of order, it is just as important for us to talk about things like organ harvesting in other countries as it is to talk about reproductive rights in the United States. There's no “get out of jail free” card for any country in this committee.
1:15 p.m.
Bloc
The Vice-Chair Bloc Stéphane Bergeron
Mr. Oliphant, that's a point of debate.
Mr. Genuis, are you finished with your point of order, or did you want to come back to your—
1:15 p.m.
Conservative
Garnett Genuis Conservative Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB
Can I respond to Mr. Oliphant's point? If there were piece of legislation dealing with the matters of this motion, I would be the first to say we should prioritize it. We can't ignore questions of the process obligations of the committee. If we're going to talk about the agenda of the committee going forward....
Mr. Chair, that's enough on the point of order. I think I had the floor, in any event, didn't I?
1:15 p.m.
Conservative
Garnett Genuis Conservative Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB
If there's consensus, we can proceed in whatever manner we like by unanimous consent.
My suggestion would be that we adjourn the debate, send this to the subcommittee to consider, among other ideas, and we get a report back from the subcommittee that says, recognizing—
1:15 p.m.
Liberal
Rachel Bendayan Liberal Outremont, QC
Mr. Chair, I have a point of order. We already voted on referring the motion to the subcommittee. We can't vote on the same motion twice.
1:15 p.m.
Bloc
The Vice-Chair Bloc Stéphane Bergeron
Ms. Bendayan, Mr. Genuis's motion was found to be in order.
That said, once again, there does seem to be some confusion since he referred to a motion to adjourn again.
Is the committee continuing to debate the motion, or has Mr. Genuis put forward a motion to adjourn?