Citizenship and Immigration Committee on Nov. 20th, 2007

[Jim Karygiannis, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

Fine. I mean, the agenda as it was...we ask the steering committee, the agenda as it was, that the agenda gets brought back. And none of these items that are important to our stakeholders, that are important to the people who have put their names forward, are dismissed.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

Yes. I mean, it's very important, I think, that we continue with these agenda items.

Okay?

Mr. Batters--

[Jim Karygiannis, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

Chair, as a point of clarification, I did refer to some e-mails. I will table them for the committee.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

Good. Thank you.

Mr. Batters.

[Dave Batters, Conservative, Palliser, SK]

I have a point clarification, Mr. Chair, and I think it's an important one.

While you were occupied with the clerk, Ms. Chow made a point of clarification about her motion. She said she could assume that her motion that was brought forward, the matter of the Iraq war refugees, would be heard before we broke for Christmas, December 13. And really, that wasn't...we didn't ever vote on it.

You indicated quickly that, yes, we did. Mr. Telegdi actually made comments that, no, we're getting into semantics; that's all going to be dealt with by the steering committee. That was my understanding as well, that all of that would be dealt with by the steering committee, understanding that there was a tight timeframe involved and we want to hear from these individuals as soon as possible, before voting on that motion.

So I just want to correct you, Mr. Chair, for the blues. Ms. Chow asked a question as to whether her motion of December 13 being a deadline had passed, and you said yes. I don't think that's the case. It was deferred to the steering committee, for the steering committee to decide.

I think that more accurately reflects what happened in this room.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

Yes, I think that's true.

[Olivia Chow, NDP, Trinity—Spadina, ON]

Mr. Chair, then I will move this motion and have this motion come back at the next meeting, on the odd chance that at the subcommittee—I'm just being a bit cautious—this item will not come up for several months.

I certainly do not want that to happen. I'm judging on good faith that it would be fine, and it would come back before December 13, after we work out all the agenda—

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

I get the impression from the committee that they would want to deal with it.

[Olivia Chow, NDP, Trinity—Spadina, ON]

Well, then, I see absolutely no reason why we wouldn't actually get a vote, a precise vote, to say that we would defer this motion until December 13 and have it come back for discussion.

Now, mind you, if we end up having a long debate and there are many other items, we can come back and say, hey, we'll defer it again until February or March. But certainly, given that there is a motion on the floor, I think I need to have an assurance that at least after today's subcommittee meeting, we will have a very clear signal that we're not going to defer this for a long time and nothing happens.

So if you do not want to call a vote on this matter—

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

Well, I just can't tell you what the subcommittee is going to decide upon. The subcommittee is—

[Olivia Chow, NDP, Trinity—Spadina, ON]

So my motion is still on the order paper. If it's a problem, I will bring it back next Tuesday, just for—

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

Let's just wait and see what the subcommittee comes up with today.

[Jim Karygiannis, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

If I may make one clarification—I want to speak to this—I appreciate the fact that the individuals whom we're dealing with need to be dealt with in an appropriate and fast fashion, but I think there's other stuff on the agenda. For example, with respect to the Iraqi refugees, we have people over there who are getting killed, people who are stuck at the border, and they're forced back out of Syria and Jordan to go back into Iraq.

I'm just wondering if Ms. Chow doesn't feel that this also is important and we have to deal with that by December 13.

If that's not the case, please clarify.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

I think we need to leave this to the subcommittee to deal with in a few minutes from now. We'll be able to give you a better read afterwards.

Is that satisfactory, Ms. Chow, that we let the subcommittee deal with it, on good faith?

[Olivia Chow, NDP, Trinity—Spadina, ON]

Just to be precise, the clerk would understand that this motion is not dealt with at this point and we will see where it goes, and I may or may not bring it back at the next meeting.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

You can always reintroduce it.

[Olivia Chow, NDP, Trinity—Spadina, ON]

Absolutely.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

Okay.

[Jim Karygiannis, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

Chair, if I may, I was wondering if Ms. Chow can answer my question, the one that I posed to her.

[Olivia Chow, NDP, Trinity—Spadina, ON]

There's absolutely no reason to.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

Well, let's not get into—

[Jim Karygiannis, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

Sorry, what was that? No reason to what?

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

Order.

Let's not get into this—

[Olivia Chow, NDP, Trinity—Spadina, ON]

Mr. Chair, I have a point of order.

If you want actually a speech on what's happening in Iraq, I could do so. I didn't think that this was the item in front of us, talking about the war in Iraq. Yes, absolutely, we need to bring all the refugees from Iraq to Canada as quickly as possible. We need to expedite it. I've said so publicly several times.

And yes, I've listened to The Current. It is heartbreaking, what's happening.

And yes, I would work with Mr. Karygiannis--

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

Order.

We're going to go into a subcommittee meeting, so I would ask the members of the subcommittee to stay behind.

Thank you.

The meeting is adjourned.