Evidence of meeting #56 for Citizenship and Immigration in the 39th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was questions.
A recording is available from Parliament.
12:15 p.m.
Liberal
12:15 p.m.
Conservative
12:15 p.m.
Conservative
Barry Devolin Conservative Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock, ON
I have a question on the swearing in.
12:15 p.m.
Conservative
12:15 p.m.
Conservative
12:15 p.m.
An hon. member
What's the amendment?
12:15 p.m.
The Clerk
Mr. Chair, I'll read it out: “That the CIC officials that were invited to the meeting of Wednesday, May 2, 2007, be reinvited to appear before the Committee, except Mark Davidson, specifically regarding”, etc.
(Amendment agreed to)
12:15 p.m.
The Clerk
The second one is to add at the end, “and that the witnesses be sworn in”.
12:15 p.m.
The Clerk
Yes, “and they be so notified”.
12:20 p.m.
Conservative
Barry Devolin Conservative Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock, ON
On the swearing in, I've only been here for three years and on the committees I've been on I haven't seen people sworn in before. Do you think the people who were here were saying things that weren't true? Is that...?
12:20 p.m.
Conservative
Barry Devolin Conservative Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock, ON
Because what you said is that you thought they weren't directly answering your questions, or they were being vague. But swearing in doesn't fix that, does it?
12:20 p.m.
Liberal
Andrew Telegdi Liberal Kitchener—Waterloo, ON
I think if you look at the public accounts, where we have the top leadership in the RCMP sworn in on a regular basis, plus all the witnesses who are appearing, we would undertake a similar process. So it's not something that doesn't get done. It gets done.
12:20 p.m.
Conservative
Barry Devolin Conservative Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock, ON
No, I appreciate it gets done. I was just curious if you had a particular.... You could swear in all the witnesses every time. You must have some particular reason why you want to swear these ones in.
12:20 p.m.
Liberal
Andrew Telegdi Liberal Kitchener—Waterloo, ON
I think it adds some more urgency to what we're doing, and I think it also gives some cover to the witnesses who end up saying things that their superiors might not like.
12:20 p.m.
Conservative
Barry Devolin Conservative Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock, ON
It was a very specific list of people you had here from different places. Did you pick them for some particular reason? Did you have some particular reason that they weren't going to tell the truth?
12:20 p.m.
Conservative
12:20 p.m.
Liberal
Andrew Telegdi Liberal Kitchener—Waterloo, ON
A lot of the list came from input from the lost Canadians who have been dealing with those people over time.
