Evidence of meeting #87 for Procedure and House Affairs in the 42nd Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was information.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Larry Bagnell
Good morning. Welcome to the 87th meeting of the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs.
For our members' information, we are currently sitting in public.
The first order of business today is the election of a first vice-chair. To this end, I'll now turn the floor over to the clerk.
The Clerk of the Committee Mr. Andrew Lauzon
Pursuant to Standing Order 106(2), the first vice-chair must be a member of the official opposition. I'm now prepared to receive motions for the first vice-chair.
Mr. Nater.
The Clerk
It's been moved by Mr. Nater that Mr. Richards be elected as first vice-chair of the committee.
Are there any further motions? No.
Is it the pleasure of the committee to adopt the motion?
The Clerk
I declare the motion carried and Mr. Richards duly elected first vice-chair of the committee.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Larry Bagnell
Just before we go on to the next item, I want to have the clerk mention the procedures regarding sexual harassment. Sexual harassment is covered in three different mechanisms in the House, and I want to make sure that everyone's clear what those are before we go any further, because each situation has to be dealt with through the appropriate procedure. If the clerk could just briefly mention those three procedures and who falls under each procedure....
The Clerk
I'll try to give you an overview of the sexual harassment regime that exists right now on the Hill, focusing on the House of Commons.
First of all, there is the Code of Conduct for Members of the House of Commons: Sexual Harassment, which is appended to the Standing Orders and applies to members of Parliament. This is the code that was developed in the previous Parliament by the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs, and took effect at the beginning of this Parliament.
Second, there is what is called the House of Commons Policy on Preventing and Addressing Harassment, which was adopted by the Board of Internal Economy on December 9, 2014. This policy applies to all members of Parliament, including House officers, as employers, and to staff employed by members, House officers, and research officers. Furthermore, interns and volunteers, paid or unpaid, are also covered by this policy. The Board of Internal Economy would be the governing body when it comes to this policy.
Beyond that, the House of Commons has its own harassment prevention policy that applies to employees of the House administration solely, and is not, in fact, applicable to members of Parliament.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Larry Bagnell
The only authority we have is the code for members relating to other members.
Filomena.
Liberal
Filomena Tassi Liberal Hamilton West—Ancaster—Dundas, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'd like to move a motion that has been circulated by the clerk. The motion is as follows:
Pursuant to Standing Orders 108(1)(a) and 108(1)(c), a Subcommittee on a Code of Conduct for Members be established to conduct a thorough review of the Code of Conduct for Members of the House of Commons: Sexual Harassment;
that the Subcommittee be composed of seven (7) members, of which four (4) shall be from the Government party, two (2) from the Official Opposition, and one (1) from the NDP;
that the Whip of each party deposit with the Clerk of the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs a list of his or her party's members to serve on the Subcommittee;
that the Whip of each party submit his or her initial list of members to serve on the Subcommittee no later than February 5, 2018;
that membership substitutions be permitted from time to time, if required, in the manner provided for in Standing Order 114(2);
that the Subcommittee be chaired by a member of the Government party and that the Member for Yukon be named Chair of the Subcommittee; and
that the Subcommittee be granted all the powers of the Committee pursuant to Standing Order 108(1).
Mr. Chair, can I make a couple of points?
I am bringing forward this motion, which I hope we're all going to support, and I anticipate we will. I recognize that in the fall there was a review of the code. However, in the past number of months with the #MeToo movement, with the Canadian Press survey, and with the rapid pace that cases are coming forward and being reported, I think the time is right and the time is now that we have a renewed focus on this code. It is for this reason that I'm moving this motion today.
Conservative
Blake Richards Conservative Banff—Airdrie, AB
Thank you.
As the official opposition, we certainly support the motion. Obviously, no one should ever be facing harassment in the workplace, and we're ready and willing to do whatever we can to help move that forward. We certainly support it.
I have an amendment, though. I'll just read it out, and I can circulate a copy here in both official languages. The first part is actually just grammatical, to facilitate the substantive part of the amendment. I'll read it as I have it here:
That the motion be amended by (a) deleting "and" at the end of the sixth paragraph; (b) adding "; and" at the end of the seventh paragraph;
That's obviously just to facilitate the addition of another clause, which would read:
and (c) adding the following paragraph: "that the Subcommittee have confidential access to the evidence taken by the Committee in camera during its review of the Code in September and October 2017.”
This is for obvious reasons. We just recently reviewed this. Members of the subcommittee may not necessarily be members of this committee, and we want to make sure they have access to that, especially given that it's so recent. That's all it is intended to do.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Larry Bagnell
The discussion now is on the amendment.
We'll go to Mr. Christopherson.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Larry Bagnell
Maybe we can deal with the amendment, then.
Is there any further discussion on the amendment? All in favour of the amendment?
Liberal
Filomena Tassi Liberal Hamilton West—Ancaster—Dundas, ON
I thank Mr. Richards for bringing that up. It's a good point, and I fully support that amendment.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Larry Bagnell
Okay.
(Amendment agreed to)
Back to discussion of the motion as amended, we'll go to Mr. Christopherson.
NDP
David Christopherson NDP Hamilton Centre, ON
Thanks very much, Chair.
If I can, I want to thank Ms. Tassi for the courtesy of the heads-up, because this is an issue that's non-partisan. Starting that way with the approach makes a real big difference in how these things unfold, so I appreciate the courtesy.
Also, I take note of the fact that Ms. Tassi is also the deputy whip of the government, so, unlike most of us, can be dealing with details of this on a rather ongoing basis sometimes. I take some lead from that, in terms of her experience.
The only thing is, Chair, what I want to propose—and I'll move it—is broadening the mandate to include the following. My amendment reads, “with a view to make sure effective harassment protections are available to members, employees, interns, volunteers, and other people working with members of the House of Commons.”
I know we do these things in different segments, so if somebody's got an argument that this isn't the place for it, fine. We are seeking to broaden the protections that would be involved, and I put that before colleagues.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Larry Bagnell
Let me just get clarification from the clerk on that.
The clerk is just looking it up again, but as he mentioned in his opening comments, the location for that discussion is the Board of Internal Economy, because their policy covers all of those situations.
NDP
David Christopherson NDP Hamilton Centre, ON
Understood. I was seeking to see if it's in order for me to broaden it in this one too. The first thing I have to find out is whether you're going to allow it.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Larry Bagnell
The clerk is just pointing out here that Standing Order 108(3)(a)(ix) indicates that the standing committee's mandate includes as follows:
the review and report on all matters relating to the Code of Conduct for Members of the House of Commons: Sexual Harassment.
That's basically the policy we have now. It's limited to between members. Are you suggesting that there be protections in two different processes? It would be in the Board of Internal Economy code, and we'd have two conflicting codes?
NDP
David Christopherson NDP Hamilton Centre, ON
I don't know if they'd be conflicting, but the protection that we're talking about would be included here, too, yes. If you're asking if there inevitably would be some kind of a duplication, potentially there could. However, that doesn't mean it shouldn't be in here because we do have, at least, as you've said, three different areas where we do this, and I'm sure there's overlap.
