Citizenship and Immigration Committee on May 14th, 2009

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

Point of order, Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Yes, Mr. Karygiannis?

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

We have agreed on four-minute rounds.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

You're absolutely right.

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

I have to point out to you, sir, that we're way over that.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

You're absolutely right. We've been way over almost with every question.

Mr. Shory, you have time for one question.

I'm sorry, Ms. Mason. I have to follow the rules of the committee.

[Agatha Mason]

Okay. Can't handle the truth.

[Devinder Shory, Conservative, Calgary Northeast, AB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you, witnesses, for coming out this morning.

I won't waste too much time, but I'll put in one line, which is that just as my colleague, Mr. Bevilacqua, has done some hard jobs, I definitely also did sweep floors, unload trucks, drive taxis—all kinds of work. This is a great country, where with honest, hard work, we can achieve anything we wish.

I want your comment on the Liberal leader's quote here: “It is my belief that [the caregivers] were not abused in this case. He also said further in the quote, “But we want to make darn sure we don’t have unpleasant stories like this again.” I'd like you to make a comment. Is that comment true?

[Agatha Mason]

I would want to know what his definition for “abuse” is. It's a broad term, so the answer probably lies in that context.

[Devinder Shory, Conservative, Calgary Northeast, AB]

Okay.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

I'm going to give you one more question, Mr. Shory, and then we're going to cut this off. I'm sorry.

One more brief question.

[Devinder Shory, Conservative, Calgary Northeast, AB]

In your definition, was this an abuse to any extent?

[Agatha Mason]

Most definitely. I must say to you also that I worked as a program manager in a shelter for women and children, and I know what abuse is to the most extreme. I would classify what I was told in that allegation from the caregiver that she was experiencing abuse. It takes a lot to break down and sob on the phone, unless you are a very good actor or actress.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Thank you very much.

Ms. Mathyssen, you have a point of order?

[Irene Mathyssen, NDP, London—Fanshawe, ON]

Yes. Since Ms. Mason was unable to finish her statement, could she submit it so that the committee could read it?

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

That's a very good point, Ms. Mathyssen.

Your statement that I interrupted you on, if you could make that available to the clerk, that would be appreciated, and we would distribute it to members of the committee.

A point of order, Mr. Karygiannis?

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

On the same point of order, Ms. Mason also held up, I believe, a phone bill and some records of conversations. Could that also be submitted to the committee?

I believe it was a phone bill that you had. Do you have the phone bill with you?

[Agatha Mason]

I have a copy, yes, and the original, here, yes.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Okay. If you could give it to the clerk, we would appreciate that.

I want to thank Ms. Beboso, Ms. Mason, and Ms. Quash for coming and going through a difficult time. We appreciate that.

I will suspend this meeting. Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

We are going to reconvene the meeting.

Committee members, I need your assistance. We have a bit of a problem. Normally we have a panel and normally we give them an hour. This meeting is going to end at eleven o'clock because members have to go to other committees. So I need guidance. We have roughly 20 minutes.

We can do a number of things.

Mr. Clerk, where have they all come from?

[The Clerk of the Committee, Mr. Andrew Chaplin]

Two of the gentlemen are here from the Golden Horseshoe area. The Canadian Labour Congress, I believe, has come from Ottawa.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

I need some guidance from the committee as to what we're going to do now.

Mr. Dykstra.

[Rick Dykstra, Conservative, St. Catharines, ON]

First, I want to apologize to our witnesses. We obviously had some testimony that we needed to listen to in the previous witnesses. So my apologies to each of the four of you. I know you are here under the same regard and have made the same time commitment to give to us.

I would suggest, if the witnesses would agree, that we not have introductory comments but just go directly to questions. That would give us a little bit more time to be able to interact with our witnesses. If they do have presentations, we could accept them as submitted to the clerk. They could be distributed through to us.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Is that agreed?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.