Citizenship and Immigration Committee on June 12th, 2024

[Brad Redekopp, Conservative, Saskatoon West, SK]

Mr. Chair, it's a no on our side. We're happy to come back after. I think we have resources, so we'd like to continue this, because obviously the Liberals are filibustering this, and we'd like to give them the opportunity to keep talking about this motion they don't like.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sukh Dhaliwal]

Thank you.

Let me check with the clerk on when the resources will end.

I've checked, and we have resources until 1:30. Basically, once the vote is announced, then I have to give 10 minutes for members to come back. I can do that. It will be probably only a few minutes.

With that, the first thing is that there might be unanimous consent to continue.

No? There's no unanimous consent to continue this meeting?

Right now, there is no unanimity to continue the meeting, so I'm going to suspend the meeting. We have resources until 1:30.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sukh Dhaliwal]

I call this meeting back to order.

The food has arrived. Before we break for lunch, I'll give the floor to Mr. Chiang, because he had the floor.

Carry on, please, until 1:30.

[Paul Chiang, Liberal, Markham—Unionville, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to my colleagues here for understanding where I'm coming from. It's important for us to understand, when we talk about a banana republic.... Like I said earlier, I'm not sure what backgrounds they had in their prior lives before becoming members here.

The police services are independent. I want to re-emphasize that part. They are not beholden to the government, nor do they listen to what the government has to say.

I'll carry on. The report continues:

In reply to another question about timing, Minister Sajjan remarked that Canada's “evacuation started as soon as we felt the situation was deteriorating.”

Ambassador Sirrs provided further details about the government's contingency planning and the core assessments that were informing decision-making at the time. He said:

Up until a few days before the decision to temporarily suspend embassy operations, Canada and the international community were expecting difficult times in August and September, but not a complete takeover of the capital. In fact, we expected the Afghan military to defend the city until the onset of winter, allowing time for negotiations to continue.

With this in mind, we were considering options to maintain a skeletal—

[The Chair, Liberal, Sukh Dhaliwal]

Mr. Chiang, I'm sorry to interrupt you. The resources are available until 1:30. It is 1:30.

The meeting is suspended. Thank you.

[The meeting was suspended at 1:30 p.m., Monday, June 17]

[The meeting resumed at 3:37 p.m., Monday, September 16]

[The Chair, Liberal, Sukh Dhaliwal]

Good afternoon.

I call this meeting to order. We are meeting in public.

I would love to welcome the honourable members. I hope everyone had a good time with their constituents and their families. I'm looking forward to a great session moving forward.

Two of the members here are subbing today. I would love to welcome Mr. Marc Dalton from beautiful British Columbia and my dear friend Heather McPherson from my old hometown in Alberta.

Welcome to the continuation of meeting number 106 of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration to discuss the draft letter regarding the government's response to the final report of the Special Committee on Afghanistan.

On avoiding audio feedback, this will be the last time I will be saying this. Before we begin, I would ask all in-person participants to read the guidelines written on the updated cards on the table. These measures are in place to help prevent audio feedback incidents and to protect the health and safety of all participants, including the hard-working interpreters.

Today’s meeting is taking place in a hybrid format. I would like to remind participants of the following points.

Please wait until I recognize you by name before speaking. All comments should be addressed through the chair. Members, please raise your hand if you wish to speak, whether participating in person or via Zoom. The clerk and I will manage the speaking order as well as we can. Thank you all for your co-operation.

I have to suspend the meeting for a few minutes for technical reasons.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sukh Dhaliwal]

I call the meeting back to order.

We'll go back to the Afghanistan letter and press release. As you all know, the discussion regarding the draft letter was previously done in camera. I would ask all members to be careful about disclosing information that has been decided or discussed in camera.

We are discussing the motion of Mr. McLean. Does the committee want me to read the motion?

The motion is the following:

That regarding the draft letter concerning the government's response to the Final Report of the Special Committee on Afghanistan as sent to committee members on May 21, 2024, the paragraphs numbered 19, 20 and 23 be deemed adopted without amendment; that the letter and news release be then deemed adopted; that the chair be then instructed to transmit the letter to the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship on the second business day following the adoption of this motion; that the chair then issue the news release on behalf of the committee immediately upon transmitting the letter to the minister; that the letter and the news release be then posted to the committee’s website; and that the study be then deemed concluded.

At the time of the suspension on Monday, June 17, Mr. Chiang had the floor. The following were on the list to debate the motion after Mr. Chiang: MP El-Khoury and MP Kayabaga.

Mr. Chiang, I know that you had a good rest and that you are prepared to have a shorter speech today.

The floor is yours, Mr. Chiang. Go ahead, please.

[Brad Redekopp, Conservative, Saskatoon West, SK]

I have a point of order.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sukh Dhaliwal]

Mr. Redekopp has a point of order.

[Brad Redekopp, Conservative, Saskatoon West, SK]

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Welcome back.

I have written down a different order of speaking on this. I'm confused why this is, because I had Mr. Chiang, me and then, I believe, Mr. Brunelle-Duceppe, Ms. Kwan, Ms. Kayabaga, Mr. El-Khoury and Mr. Kmiec. That's the list I had.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sukh Dhaliwal]

I'm sorry. Let me handle this.

[Brad Redekopp, Conservative, Saskatoon West, SK]

Isn't that it? I think I was even in the chair for a part of this.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sukh Dhaliwal]

That was the discussion before the motion. We would have Mr. McLean, Mr. Chiang, Mr. Redekopp, Mr. Ali, Ms. Kwan, Ms. Kayabaga, Mr. El-Khoury, and Mr. Kmiec.

This is different. This is what the clerk is telling me.

[Brad Redekopp, Conservative, Saskatoon West, SK]

What was that for?

[The Chair, Liberal, Sukh Dhaliwal]

Mr. Clerk, do you want to handle this?

[The Clerk of the Committee, Mr. Rémi Bourgault]

I have the list from the last meeting. This is the list of people who wanted to speak on the motion. We had Mr. Chiang, and two were dashed, so then we had Mr. El-Khoury and Ms. Kayabaga.

[Brad Redekopp, Conservative, Saskatoon West, SK]

Are we not on the motion?

[The Clerk]

Not from the list I have here. I think there were two names.

[Brad Redekopp, Conservative, Saskatoon West, SK]

Let me rephrase. Are we not dealing with the motion right now?

[The Chair, Liberal, Sukh Dhaliwal]

Yes, we are.

[Brad Redekopp, Conservative, Saskatoon West, SK]

Would we not follow that list on the other side?

[The Clerk]

No, because this is the list for the motion. It indicates the people who wanted to intervene on the discussion of the letter before the motion was put on the floor.

[Brad Redekopp, Conservative, Saskatoon West, SK]

Okay.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sukh Dhaliwal]

Are you happy?

[The Chair, Liberal, Sukh Dhaliwal]

Thank you, Mr. Redekopp.

With this, we'll go to Mr. Chiang, please.

Mr. Chiang, go ahead, please.