Evidence of meeting #98 for Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was amendment.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bryan May
Thank you.
Is there further discussion? Seeing none, I ask all those in favour of amendment NDP-18 to please—
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bryan May
Certainly.
(Amendment negatived: nays 5; yeas 4 [See Minutes of Proceedings])
We are on LIB-12.
MP Fortier.
Liberal
Mona Fortier Liberal Ottawa—Vanier, ON
It's once again a matter of consistency with the rest of the text. I hope that you are going to support this proposal.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bryan May
All those in favour of LIB-12 please signify.
(Amendment agreed to [See Minutes of Proceedings])
(Clause 10 as amended agreed to)
We are on clause 11 and LIB-13.
It's the same thing in terms of the grammatical alignment.
(Amendment agreed to [See Minutes of Proceedings])
(Clause 11 as amended agreed to)
Conservative
Rachael Thomas Conservative Lethbridge, AB
Mr. Chair, there have been several times when I have raised my hand—
Conservative
Conservative
Rachael Thomas Conservative Lethbridge, AB
I had my hand raised on amendment LIB-13 before it went to a vote.
Conservative
Rachael Thomas Conservative Lethbridge, AB
I do. Thank you.
The committee has made a number of these amendments. I wonder whether the party or the member who has put these forward can answer this question for me.
We're changing the wording from “harassment or violence” to “harassment and violence”. In my estimation, harassment and violence are two different things. It would be more permissive and more victim-centric if it were to say “harassment or violence”, thereby allowing for either to be the case. Saying “harassment and violence” means that both have to be the case in order for the concern to come forward.
Conservative
Rachael Thomas Conservative Lethbridge, AB
I am looking for some clarification with respect to this language and our view that use of the word “and” strengthens this policy.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bryan May
We discussed this in the last meeting, but Dan, you had something to say.
Liberal
Dan Ruimy Liberal Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge, BC
That's exactly what I was going to say. We had this discussion previously and went to the officials and had a fulsome discussion. We passed it as it was, and are just amending it throughout the whole legislation.
Conservative
Rachael Thomas Conservative Lethbridge, AB
Mr. Chair, perhaps I could ask the officials to explain this to me. I would just like to understand why this decision was made.
Thank you.
Conservative
Rachael Thomas Conservative Lethbridge, AB
Can you help me understand why the use of the word “and” would strengthen this legislation, as opposed to the use of “or”?
Director General, Strategic Policy, Analysis and Workplace, Labour Program, Department of Employment and Social Development
Maybe I'll just say that on Monday the amendment that was passed with regard to the definition was to define it as “harassment and violence”. I don't have the wording in front of me with the definition. What that meant is that this needs to carry all the way through the bill, so that every time you see “harassment or violence” in the bill, in order to be consistent with the definition arrived at on Monday it has to be worded “harassment and violence”.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bryan May
It's not necessarily an issue of strengthening or weakening the legislation. It's an issue of consistency through the bill in terms of language. That's all it was.
Conservative
Rachael Thomas Conservative Lethbridge, AB
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I understand the process and I understand that this decision was made on Monday. It still hasn't been communicated to me why we made that change, because we could have decided upon either one. We could have said “harassment or violence” throughout the entire bill, or we could have said “harassment and violence” throughout the entire bill.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bryan May
Again, it was the language that was used in the definition adopted on Monday, and just for consistency's sake, as Ms. Moran points out, it needed to be changed throughout the legislation.
Monsieur Blaney.
