Foreign Affairs Committee on May 16th, 2022

[Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe, Bloc, Lac-Saint-Jean, QC]

It was a member of my party who proposed the subamendment.

The matter of relevance has been raised over and over again, Mr. Chair, but I'll tell you what's relevant—the committee getting to work.

Everyone already knows how they're going to vote. What is happening here is shameful, quite frankly. I am standing in for my fellow member, and I find this unfortunate. We are all paid to do a job that we aren't doing right now, and we are being paid, still.

This is disgraceful.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ali Ehsassi]

Thank you, Mr. Brunelle-Duceppe.

Again, I think it's pretty clear and obvious that all the members are concerned about ensuring our comments do remain relevant.

That having been said, I also wanted to remind all of you this meeting will be over at 12 o'clock. I'm advised by the clerk that resources have not been provided beyond 12 o'clock, since our meeting did start at 10 o'clock.

Mr. Perkins, I would ask again that you try your utmost to remain relevant in your comments.

Thank you.

[Rick Perkins, Conservative, South Shore—St. Margarets, NS]

Just to finish on the snow crab issue, the snow crab issue is that Japan has filled in and is buying snow crab from Russia, a G7 partner, providing them with them with cash—that's the relevance—and has abandoned their contracts in Newfoundland. It relates directly to the leaky sanctions.

With that in mind, given the discussion around the table, I believe a motion to adjourn debate is in order.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ali Ehsassi]

Is there unanimous—

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

He doesn't need unanimous consent. He's just moving to adjourn debate.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ali Ehsassi]

Okay.

We're going to vote on that.

(Motion negatived: nays 7; yeas 4)

Thank you.

Ms. McPherson.

[Heather McPherson, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

I have a point of order, Mr. Chair.

I would like to put on the record that the discussion today is about a study on the reproductive rights of women and, once again, we have five Conservative men—

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

This is not a point of order, Mr. Chair.

[Heather McPherson, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

—in this room, speaking about why we cannot look at the reproductive rights of women.

I just want that on the record.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

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

This is a matter of debate, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ali Ehsassi]

Thank you, Ms. McPherson.

The time currently stands at 12 o'clock. I'm sure some will be happy and others not so happy that we're going to have to suspend the meeting.

Thank you.

[The meeting was suspended at 12:01 p.m., Monday, June 13]

[The meeting resumed at 3:38 p.m., Thursday, June 16]

[The Chair, Liberal, Ali Ehsassi]

I call this meeting to order.

Welcome back, colleagues, to meeting number 21 of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development. Today we'll be continuing the discussion that commenced on Monday, May 16, 2022.

As always, interpretation is available through the globe icon at the bottom of your screen.

For members participating in person, keep in mind the Board of Internal Economy's guidelines for mask use and health protocols.

Before speaking, please wait until you are recognized. When you're not speaking, please ensure that your mikes are turned off.

All comments by members should be addressed through the chair.

As you will recall, we are resuming debate on Mr. Bergeron's subamendment. At the outset, I think it's to be recalled that during our last debate, Mr. Perkins ceded the floor by bringing a motion to adjourn the debate.

[Rick Perkins, Conservative, South Shore—St. Margarets, NS]

No.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ali Ehsassi]

You did bring a motion to adjourn debate. That motion was defeated, so, as it's clearly stipulated in the rules of procedure, you ceded the floor.

[Rick Perkins, Conservative, South Shore—St. Margarets, NS]

Okay, then just put me on the list.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ali Ehsassi]

Absolutely. You'd like to be back on the list.

As a reminder to all colleagues, the current speakers list consists of Mr. Oliphant, Madam Gray, Mr. Morantz, who is not here today, Mr. Aboultaif, Madam Fry and Mr. Perkins.

Mr. Oliphant, the floor is yours.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I will keep my remarks very short, and I would hope that all members do, because we have important work to do on this committee.

I'll remind the committee that we are very close to finishing an interim statement on Ukraine, which I would like to get finished. We're also in a very important study on Canada's response with respect to vaccine equity and advice for the government on both what happened most recently and for future pandemics. Those are two very important pieces of work, and we had one meeting on Taiwan, which I think we will have to deal with.

I will keep my remarks short and simply say that I am supportive of the subamendment by Mr. Bergeron from the Bloc Québécois. I think it adds some clarity to the amendment. That doesn't mean we would support the amendment; however, we will support the subamendment.

It is clarifying to ensure that we are recognizing that the study proposed by Dr. Fry, following up her request in December to do a similar study on women's reproductive rights globally, is a study that we think is important; however, we are not attempting to jump the queue of our current work. It will go into the regular process of planning work. We would like to finish our work quickly and get it done before the end of this session.

Again, I would just remind members that we are not suggesting that this study takes primacy. It is simply putting it into our work plan to ensure that we will cover a very important issue, which I think has been exacerbated by the war in Ukraine. We have heard testimony, both at this committee and in another committee, with respect to the violation of women and the egregious crimes against humanity, war crimes, committed against women in Ukraine in the current illegal invasion by Russia into Ukraine. God forbid, some of those women may end up pregnant, and they may end up outside of Ukraine in a country that does not provide for legal abortions. They may end up having abortions that are dangerous. We would say this is timely and important, given the war in Ukraine.

I will close by simply saying that we would like to finish our statement on Ukraine, come to a conclusion on vaccine equity and either deal with the Taiwan study or perhaps send it to the new subcommittee that the Conservatives have suggested, now that the House has agreed to have a special committee on Canada-China relations.

Mr. Chair, I hope that brief comments will follow and that we can get to that work.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ali Ehsassi]

Thank you, Mr. Oliphant.

Ms. Gray, the floor is yours.

[Tracy Gray, Conservative, Kelowna—Lake Country, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I think this is my first opportunity to say congratulations on your becoming chair of this committee.

I'm here today to speak to what I'll just read out:

That the words “and that this study not take place until the committee makes a decision on the studies before it on Ukraine, vaccine equity and Taiwan, as well as studies on legislation sent from the House of Commons; and further that it not take place until the subcommittee on agenda and procedure submits a report specifying the manner in which these studies be undertaken” be inserted between the words “rights globally” and the words “and that the committee report its findings to the House.”

I wanted to speak on the importance of really continuing on discussing Ukraine and the importance of that conversation to highlight some of the examples on why this is so important.

These are some of the comments right through the House of Commons that I'll highlight from June 1 of this year, 2022. I had questioned this with the Prime Minister. I'll just read this:

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister's goal to make everything more expensive is punishing Canadians at the grocery store. My constituency survey on inflationary grocery prices had this response from a resident: “When is it going to stop? How much more do you think people can afford to spend on set incomes!” Another said that with the cost of food now so high, they cannot afford medicine anymore. When is the Prime Minister going to wake up to how his made-in-Canada inflation is putting basic necessities out of reach for so many people?

That was my question.

As to how the Prime Minister answered that day, which was June 1, he said:

Mr. Speaker, we know the global inflation caused first by the pandemic and second by Vladimir Putin's illegal war in Ukraine is putting pressure on families, including with high gas prices. Canadians deserve support, which is what we are giving, but the Conservatives have opposed policies that put money back into Canadians' pockets. They voted against cutting taxes for the middle class, they voted against cutting child care fees in half this year and they voted against more support for families, seniors and students. They are also opposing our price on pollution, which means they are opposing giving more money to eight out of 10 Canadian families. We will be—

Then he got cut off, but those are the words right from the Prime Minister. You can see how he answered my question, which wasn't about Ukraine. It had to do with inflationary grocery prices, but his answer was, in his view, how Ukraine was affecting that.

There is one example as to how Ukraine could potentially affecting what's happening in Canada, or the perception of it, and so why it's important that we have these conversations.

On May 31 of this year, there was another question from the member for Portage—Lisgar. The question was:

Mr. Speaker, it is always good to have you back. Hopefully we give the government, and not you, a hard time today. The Prime Minister is penalizing Canadians at the pumps on purpose.

[Rachel Bendayan, Liberal, Outremont, QC]

I have a point of order, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ali Ehsassi]

Ms. Bendayan.

[Rachel Bendayan, Liberal, Outremont, QC]

Mr. Chair, we have listened for some time to things that are not relevant. I would ask for a ruling on the relevance of this.

First, I think the member is mistaken, in that we are discussing a subamendment to the motion to discuss reproductive rights. She is citing into the record things that have not only nothing to do with the motion and nothing to do with the amendment, but certainly nothing to do with the subamendment.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ali Ehsassi]

Thank you, Ms. Bendayan.

This is an issue that has caused some consternation and expressions of concern throughout our hearing. I think it is imperative that we all endeavour to speak to relevant facts to the issue before us.

For your edification, Ms. Gray, I will read the subamendment that Mr. Bergeron introduced on June 6. It reads that the words “after the completion of the committee's studies on” and “prescribing the manner in which the study is to proceed” be replaced with “the committee make a decision on the studies before it on” and “specifying the manner in which the studies be undertaken”.

As I'm sure we can all agree, that is a very specific subamendment. I would ask that you keep your remarks confined to the issue at hand in this subamendment.

Thank you.

[Tracy Gray, Conservative, Kelowna—Lake Country, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I was setting the table, I guess you could say, on what brought us to this point.

On that note, because we are looking at how important this is, I do want to bring up another issue around Ukraine, which really brings relevance into what we're talking about. This has to do with gas prices.

When we look at gas prices across the country—

[Rachel Bendayan, Liberal, Outremont, QC]

On a point of order, Mr. Chair, we are further away from relevance at this point. I believe you asked the member to focus her comments on the subamendment.