Foreign Affairs Committee on Aug. 4th, 2022

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Marty Morantz]

Sorry, Mr. Sarai, you didn't have the floor.

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

Chair, look, I'll just make this simple. It's up to the majority of the committee to decide how they will proceed. I will move a motion that we have now a 10-minute discussion about the foregoing business of the committee. I'll move that motion, and I suggest we vote on it, and if there's a desire to have that 10-minute discussion, we'll have the 10-minute discussion.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Marty Morantz]

There is a motion on the floor. Is there any discussion or debate on the motion?

I don't see anyone's hand up, so I guess we'll go to a vote.

Mr. Clerk, could you call the vote, please?

[The Clerk]

Mr. Chair, it's a tight vote result. We have four yeas and four nays.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Marty Morantz]

As I understand it, I have the deciding vote.

I'll vote “yea”.

(Motion agreed to: yeas 5; nays 4)

[The Chair]

The meeting will now continue for 10 minutes. We will discuss [Technical difficulty—Editor].

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Marty Morantz]

Does anyone want to start?

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

My hand is raised, Chair.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Marty Morantz]

Mr. Genuis, you have the floor.

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

Thank you, Chair.

I would just propose the following: That we schedule the Ukrainian Canadian Congress to provide an additional hour of testimony; that we gather witnesses from parties as per the original motion; that we schedule additional meetings on this issue next week and the week after in order to continue the work that has begun on this urgent issue; that the chair be asked to schedule witnesses that are proposed by the various parties in rough proportion to those parties and, if necessary, in consultation with the vice-chairs as per the standard practice; that we continue to hold hearings on this subject next week and the week after in order to get to the bottom of this; and that, as part of that, we hear from the Ukrainian Canadian Congress for an additional hour.

That's what I would propose, generally speaking.

[The Clerk]

Mr. Chair, Ms. Bendayan is on the list also.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Marty Morantz]

Ms. Bendayan, you have the floor.

[Rachel Bendayan, Liberal, Outremont, QC]

I'm sorry, Mr. Chair. I didn't mean to interrupt the speaking order.

Was anyone going to speak before me?

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Marty Morantz]

I don't see any hands up.

[Rachel Bendayan, Liberal, Outremont, QC]

Mr. Bergeron has his hand up.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Marty Morantz]

I'm sorry. My mistake. It's difficult doing this virtually.

Mr. Bergeron, you have your hand up. You have the floor.

[Stéphane Bergeron, Bloc, Montarville, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

First, I must say that I find Mr. Genuis's motion extremely confusing, and so I would have no idea what I would be voting on.

However, there seems to be several elements in Mr. Genuis's motion, including, first of all, inviting back the representatives of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress.

We cannot do indirectly what we cannot do directly. I voted against this idea earlier, not because I'm against bringing back the representatives of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, but because I maintain once again—this is not the first time I have made this intervention—that imposing a witness on the committee is not the way to go.

We have ways of doing things that go through the Subcommittee on Agenda and Procedure or through a formal committee meeting where we look at the various witnesses. We sent a list of witnesses to the clerk just to have that kind of discussion.

I would like to say right away that when we have this discussion, I will be voting to reconvene the representatives of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress. But I don't think today is the time to do that, because we need to discuss all the witnesses we want to hear from, and not make piecemeal choices.

So I will vote against the motion, even though I find it extremely confusing, for that reason alone.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Marty Morantz]

Before I get to Mr. Genuis, Ms. Bendayan, do you want the floor?

[Rachel Bendayan, Liberal, Outremont, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I was pleased to hear what my colleague Mr. Bergeron had to say, because I completely agree with him. We could set up a process, as we usually do, to discuss this issue, but also set a deadline for committee members to submit proposals for additional witnesses.

I'm very open to calling back witnesses from the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, but we just heard from them today, and there are many other witnesses who will surely want to come and discuss this issue with our committee. I don't quite understand why there's an emphasis on just this one witness when, normally, our panels of witnesses are made up of several people.

As chair, you have given us 10 minutes for this discussion, and I see that half of the time is already up. So I don't know if we’re going to get anywhere in the next few minutes, and maybe we should have another discussion at a later date.

I would like—

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Marty Morantz]

So, if I may—

[Rachel Bendayan, Liberal, Outremont, QC]

Mr. Chair, I don't think my time is up yet.

I'd like to close by moving that the meeting be adjourned now.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Marty Morantz]

Is that a motion?

[Rachel Bendayan, Liberal, Outremont, QC]

Yes, it's a motion to adjourn.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Marty Morantz]

Okay, it's a dilatory motion.

Mr. Clerk, will you please call the vote?

(Motion agreed to: yeas 6; nays 4)

The motion passes. The meeting is adjourned.