Procedure and House Affairs Committee on April 9th, 2024

[Luc Berthold, Conservative, Mégantic—L'Érable, QC]

Okay.

[Sébastien Carrière]

It consults us with regard to the invitation.

[Luc Berthold, Conservative, Mégantic—L'Érable, QC]

From what I hear, you were neither consulted about Mr. Hunka's invitation nor about his presence.

In other circumstances, have you had any dealings with Mr. Hunka's family or with Mr. Hunka himself?

[Sébastien Carrière]

We sent Mr. Hunka the invitation to the Toronto event.

I think that you have seen it. It was subject to an access to information request.

Basically, it was an email sent to his personal address. No one replied.

We had no contact other than sending this invitation.

[Luc Berthold, Conservative, Mégantic—L'Érable, QC]

When you have this type of invitation to send out to people other than diplomatic staff, who asks you to invite these people?

[Sébastien Carrière]

The requests come from the client, such as Rideau Hall, the Prime Minister's Office, or any of the offices of our ministers, our three ministers at Global Affairs.

In this case, I think that the Prime Minister's Office sent us the name based on a suggestion from the public. I think that the Ukrainian Canadian Congress suggested it.

[Luc Berthold, Conservative, Mégantic—L'Érable, QC]

How can a person who failed to respond to a protocol request have participated in an event?

It's a fair question. I know that the process is usually complicated. You need to have a name and to submit it.

How did this person manage to take part in the Toronto event?

[Sébastien Carrière]

As I explained, these are two totally separate processes.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bardish Chagger]

I have a point of order from Mr. Gerretsen.

[Mark Gerretsen, Liberal, Kingston and the Islands, ON]

Madam Chair, Mr. Berthold is repeating in French what Mr. Duncan said.

Mr. Berthold is doing exactly what Mr. Duncan was doing. He's just doing it in French now. I think that it would be.... Perhaps he has just arrived back at the meeting and you will want to update him on the previous rulings you made at this committee meeting.

[Luc Berthold, Conservative, Mégantic—L'Érable, QC]

Madam Chair, I'm just following up on what Mr. Carrière said. I didn't raise the issue of the Toronto event at all.

[Mark Gerretsen, Liberal, Kingston and the Islands, ON]

In response to your question—

[Luc Berthold, Conservative, Mégantic—L'Érable, QC]

I'm only asking questions to follow up on Mr. Carrière's response. He's the one who started telling us about the Toronto event.

Since he brought up the topic, I think that I'm allowed to continue asking questions about it.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bardish Chagger]

I'm going to say in this situation, just to bring you up to speed, Monsieur Berthold, we did have a conversation at the beginning about staying focused on the motion.

I do have to agree with Mr. Berthold, because it's a little different when it's a line of questioning. When there's a line of questioning and there are some doors being opened, you sometimes have to walk through them.

I will just say that we have had a very tense meeting already. It is nice to see you. I'm really happy that you're here. Thank you for coming. I would just ask that we try to...but I agree with you.

[Luc Berthold, Conservative, Mégantic—L'Érable, QC]

I'll just wrap this up, Madam Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bardish Chagger]

Perfect.

[Luc Berthold, Conservative, Mégantic—L'Érable, QC]

My time is up anyway.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bardish Chagger]

Yes. You're almost done.

Thank you.

[Luc Berthold, Conservative, Mégantic—L'Érable, QC]

Mr. Carrière, can you explain why things happened this way?

I know that, if I want to bring someone to a protocol event and I don't have the invitation, the person doesn't get into Parliament.

Can you elaborate on this?

[Sébastien Carrière]

I want to thank the member for his question, Madam Chair.

I referred to the Toronto event because the member asked whether my office had any contact with Mr. Hunka. These are two completely separate processes. As I explained, the invitation for Toronto came from our office, at the request of the Prime Minister's Office and based on the recommendation of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress. No one responded to the email.

Regarding Mr. Hunka's invitation to come to the House of Commons and the subsequent introduction, I don't have any information about this. We were neither directly nor indirectly involved in the process.

As I explained earlier, we are asked questions about the diplomatic staff and the visiting delegation. That's all. We never see the full list.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bardish Chagger]

Thank you again, Mr. Berthold.

Mr. Gerretsen, you have five minutes through the chair.

[Mark Gerretsen, Liberal, Kingston and the Islands, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you very much for being here.

If I understood you correctly in your opening statement, you said that your role for protocol is everything outside of this building, with the exception of maybe a hallway or something. Is that true?

[Sébastien Carrière]

Parliamentary protocol is in charge here on the Hill, but we do upstairs—they call it the “PM's corridor”—where the PMO and the cabinet room—

[Mark Gerretsen, Liberal, Kingston and the Islands, ON]

You certainly don't have jurisdiction, for lack of a better term, over the chamber.

[Sébastien Carrière]

No, absolutely not.