Yes.
Evidence of meeting #65 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 amendments.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Evidence of meeting #65 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 amendments.
A recording is available from Parliament.
5:15 p.m.
Executive Director, Canadian Citizens Rights Council, As an Individual
Yes.
5:15 p.m.
Conservative
Tom Kmiec Conservative Calgary Shepard, AB
Madam Chair, can we take that as he will share it with the committee, to make sure there's follow-up? Thank you, Madam Chair.
I'm going to ask this: Do you believe Michèle Vallée when they tell you they obtained it from a Bloc staffer or from the Bloc somehow?
5:15 p.m.
Executive Director, Canadian Citizens Rights Council, As an Individual
I do not have a.... I didn't question it.
5:15 p.m.
Conservative
Tom Kmiec Conservative Calgary Shepard, AB
You didn't question it, so on face value you think this person is trustworthy. They were telling you the truth as to where they sourced it from.
5:15 p.m.
Executive Director, Canadian Citizens Rights Council, As an Individual
We're getting into areas here that.... This is just something I heard. I am answering truthfully. That's all I can say, I think. I'm not going to speculate on more.
5:15 p.m.
Conservative
Tom Kmiec Conservative Calgary Shepard, AB
I've never met this person. We have met before over Zoom way back in November. I have nothing else to go on. I don't know who this person is.
They did send a letter to the chair of the committee on March 15, 2023. That's the only communication I've seen from this particular person.
I'm asking for your character assessment. Do you think this person is being accurate when they say they specifically got it from someone in the Bloc and that they're not either accidentally misleading you or just making a general statement that it was a Bloc supporter who had this? I'm trying to determine how widely this document was shared.
5:15 p.m.
Executive Director, Canadian Citizens Rights Council, As an Individual
That is I think not a question I'm able to answer.
5:15 p.m.
Conservative
Tom Kmiec Conservative Calgary Shepard, AB
With regard to this document that you got digitally through WhatsApp, did it have any annotations on it? Were there any handwritten annotations or highlights that were on it?
5:15 p.m.
Executive Director, Canadian Citizens Rights Council, As an Individual
No.
5:15 p.m.
Conservative
Tom Kmiec Conservative Calgary Shepard, AB
It was a pristine document. It had the enumeration of all of the amendments on it.
Did it have the date of when those amendments were distributed to the committee?
5:15 p.m.
Executive Director, Canadian Citizens Rights Council, As an Individual
No.
5:15 p.m.
Conservative
Tom Kmiec Conservative Calgary Shepard, AB
Okay.
To the best of your knowledge, when discussing this with other stakeholder groups and other people, nobody else said that they had these amendments.
5:15 p.m.
Executive Director, Canadian Citizens Rights Council, As an Individual
That's correct.
5:15 p.m.
Conservative
Tom Kmiec Conservative Calgary Shepard, AB
Didn't you think at any point that you should have informed the committee that you had digitally obtained this packaged document of the amendments being considered, to inform the chair or any one of us on the committee?
5:15 p.m.
Executive Director, Canadian Citizens Rights Council, As an Individual
What I think is that I have acted in a way that has not violated any obligations on my part. The issue here is really about stakeholder consultation in a democracy—
5:15 p.m.
Conservative
Tom Kmiec Conservative Calgary Shepard, AB
I'm sorry to interrupt you, but at no point did you think you should inform the committee that someone had shared with you this document? It's just a yes or no, or you're unsure. That's okay too.
5:15 p.m.
Executive Director, Canadian Citizens Rights Council, As an Individual
This is not something that came into my mind.
5:15 p.m.
Conservative
Tom Kmiec Conservative Calgary Shepard, AB
No.
Have you ever worked on Parliament Hill or for a member of Parliament?
5:15 p.m.
Executive Director, Canadian Citizens Rights Council, As an Individual
I volunteered briefly.
5:15 p.m.
Executive Director, Canadian Citizens Rights Council, As an Individual
For Ms. Kwan.
5:15 p.m.
Conservative
Tom Kmiec Conservative Calgary Shepard, AB
For Ms. Kwan. Okay, so you're familiar with the work that is supposed to be going on here and that this particular document shouldn't be shared with others. Did you ever do committee work for Ms. Kwan?
5:15 p.m.
Executive Director, Canadian Citizens Rights Council, As an Individual
Most of the work I did was answering constituent emails and drafting responses to constituents.
5:15 p.m.
Conservative
Tom Kmiec Conservative Calgary Shepard, AB
You have worked on Parliament Hill as a volunteer. You have had interactions. Okay.
Madam Chair, I'm prepared to move the motion on breach of privilege. There are other people involved here. This goes far beyond. I think I've heard enough. I would like to move it.
This is the first opportunity that I have had, based on the information I've received, to move the motion for the potential brief of privilege, which is:
That the committee report to the House of Commons the potential breach of privilege resulting from the premature distribution of notices of amendments to Bill S-245, an Act to amend the Citizenship Act (granting citizenship to certain Canadians), to a member of the public, before clause-by-clause consideration and amendments and subamendments were moved at committee.
