Evidence of meeting #61 for Citizenship and Immigration in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was afghanistan.
A recording is available from Parliament.
5:05 p.m.
NDP
5:05 p.m.
Liberal
5:05 p.m.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
Can I just get confirmation that the chief of staff the minister mentioned is George Young?
5:05 p.m.
Liberal
5:05 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Salma Zahid
We will now proceed to Mr. Redekopp for five minutes.
Mr. Redekopp, please begin.
5:05 p.m.
Conservative
5:05 p.m.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
Thank you, Chair.
Minister, did Mr. Young ever tell you that he had sent the facilitation letters to Senator McPhedran?
5:05 p.m.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
In the tranche of emails that my colleague mentioned are sitting in translation right now, can members of the committee expect to see your personal email addresses copied on emails related to the facilitation letters that Senator McPhedran was sending out?
5:05 p.m.
Liberal
5:05 p.m.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
You could have been. Okay.
During the time she was issuing these facilitation letters—before or after—did you ever talk to Senator McPhedran on the phone or correspond any other way with her regarding the issuance of these facilitation letters?
5:05 p.m.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
I meant before, during or after.
In front of committee here, she claimed that you spoke on the phone with her about this. Is that correct?
5:05 p.m.
Liberal
Harjit S. Sajjan Liberal Vancouver South, BC
Yes. During that time she did contact me regarding people who needed to be evacuated. That's when I put her in touch with my team so that any information somebody had or names that needed to be provided could go into the system so they could be triaged properly.
5:05 p.m.
Conservative
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Liberal
Harjit S. Sajjan Liberal Vancouver South, BC
Before you make an assumption there, I want to make this very clear. There was an interdepartmental team doing this. I'm talking about the official channels of where those names were supposed to go and who was supposed to do that.
What we were trying to avoid was people contacting National Defence. We wanted to stay focused on the operation. We were trying to push them directly to the right people where work needed to be done.
5:05 p.m.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
Given that, would it be fair to say that if people had your phone number, they had a better chance of getting names on that list?
5:05 p.m.
Liberal
Harjit S. Sajjan Liberal Vancouver South, BC
I can assure you that having my phone number did not make any determination of who was going to be—
5:05 p.m.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
I think it did, because George Young sure sent her something.
Do you believe that Mr. Young should appear before this committee to set the record straight on this matter?
5:05 p.m.
Liberal
Harjit S. Sajjan Liberal Vancouver South, BC
I'm not here to speak on behalf of my former chief of staff.
5:05 p.m.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
I'm asking you as a minister of the Crown. Do you believe, as a minister of the Crown, that somebody who sent a facilitation letter to a senator to send out should appear before this committee?
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Conservative
5:05 p.m.
Liberal
