Evidence of meeting #1 for Subcommittee on International Human Rights in the 39th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was chair.
A recording is available from Parliament.
The Clerk of the Committee
Honorable members, I see a quorum. We will begin.
I'm ready to receive motions for the nomination of the chair of the subcommittee. The chair has to be a member of the government.
Ms. Minna.
Liberal
Maria Minna Liberal Beaches—East York, ON
Okay, that's been decided. In that case, I don't know who they decided on.
Conservative
Ted Menzies Conservative Macleod, AB
I would like to, if I may, nominate Kevin Sorenson as the chair.
The Clerk
There is a motion to nominate Kevin Sorenson as the chair.
Are there any other nominations?
The committee has heard the motion. Is it the pleasure of the committee to adopt the motion?
(Motion agreed to)
The Clerk
Would the committee like to proceed to the election of the vice-chair at this time?
I'm ready to receive nominations for the vice-chair.
Liberal
The Clerk
That's up to the committee. The subcommittee has seven members, and we can have two, as we do in the main committee.
The Clerk
Yes, we can.
Let's deal with the motion for Mr. Silva's nomination. Is it the pleasure of the committee to adopt the motion?
(Motion agreed to)
The Clerk
Mr. Silva will be the vice-chair for the opposition.
The nomination is for Madame St-Hilaire to be the other vice-chair for the opposition.
(Motion agreed to)
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kevin Sorenson
Thank you, colleagues.
We do have some routine motions. Do you want to deal with them tonight, or do you want to wait until our next meeting?
Mr. Menzies.
Conservative
Ted Menzies Conservative Macleod, AB
Mr. Chair, do we need to deal with some of the structure of the committee as far as putting motions forward with 48 hours' notice?
Conservative
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kevin Sorenson
First of all, I'll just go through them.
There is a motion that the subcommittee retain the services of one or more analysts from the Parliamentary Information and Research Service of the Library of Parliament, as needed, to assist the committee in its work, at the discretion of the chair.
All in favour?
(Motion agreed to)
Liberal
Maria Minna Liberal Beaches—East York, ON
The chair doesn't have to read them all. I think we know them.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kevin Sorenson
We haven't had a chance to preview this before, so it's just so we all have a chance....
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kevin Sorenson
All right.
Are we all in favour of the second motion, that the chair be authorized to hold meetings to receive...?
(Motion agreed to [See Minutes of Proceedings])
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kevin Sorenson
The next motion is to hear witnesses for ten minutes and then the allocation of party questions after, that they be allocated for seven minutes for the first round.
Is there any discussion on that? I know in other committees you do this a little differently. In some it's five minutes and more people get a chance, but seven minutes should be....
(Motion agreed to [See Minutes of Proceedings])
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kevin Sorenson
This is that 48 hours' notice be given....
(Motion agreed to [See Minutes of Proceedings])
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kevin Sorenson
All right. The next one....
(Motion agreed to [See Minutes of Proceedings])
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kevin Sorenson
Next one, all in favour?
(Motion agreed to [See Minutes of Proceedings])
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kevin Sorenson
That the clerk of the subcommittee be authorized to distribute to members of the subcommittee...in both official languages.
(Motion agreed to [See Minutes of Proceedings])
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kevin Sorenson
Working meals when needed....
(Motion agreed to [See Minutes of Proceedings])
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kevin Sorenson
That one copy of the transcript of all in camera meetings be kept.
(Motion agreed to [See Minutes of Proceedings])
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kevin Sorenson
All right, we have consensus on that.
I'm going to ask our clerk...because we just got this going and the meeting tonight was really only to elect the chair and the vice-chairs.
What time allocation do we have or can we get?
The Clerk
The subcommittee normally meets once a week and can meet only when the main committee isn't meeting. The time set aside is 5:30 to 7:30, but you can meet at other times if all members can find a time when everybody is available.
The Clerk
I've looked just generally at the membership, and it seems that Thursday morning most people don't have a committee meeting.
Liberal
Mario Silva Liberal Davenport, ON
Monday is out, but Thursday I could do maybe from eleven to twelve.
Conservative
Ted Menzies Conservative Macleod, AB
I have the trade committee from nine until eleven, usually on Thursday also. Are you nine to eleven?
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kevin Sorenson
Now that we know the membership of this committee, it might be worthwhile to submit to our clerk which committees you serve on and the times when you meet, and we'll take a look to see what options are there.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kevin Sorenson
They can work out those details. If not, we may be looking at Tuesday from 5:30 to 7:30—and I know that's a terrible time.
So get those to the clerk. Probably at the next meeting we will talk about putting forward a steering.... We would have a mandate from the committee, but as far as witness lists and specific topics of study are concerned, I know I've had a couple of letters already about human rights violations in the Philippines and other places that somebody should be looking at, according to them.
Would the proper process be to have a steering committee sit down, or no? Do we do it at committee business, future business? All right, let's do that. There's no use for a steering committee in a small group. So at a future meeting, then, we could deal with future business. Do you want to deal with that tonight?
Liberal
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kevin Sorenson
It gives you time to think about it a little bit.
I wasn't even certain who all was on this committee until tonight, so welcome here. I think it's a great committee. Not just for your people back home, but I think when you leave Parliament, you want to be able to say you tried to make a difference in some area. This is a great area that we can be involved in to better not just human rights problems here but around the world. So I commend you all for either signing up for this committee or for being drafted.
Conservative
Ted Menzies Conservative Macleod, AB
I'm jumping aside on protocol. Do we have a bit of a summation of what the previous committee looked at, so that we don't re-plough the same ground?
Conservative
Ted Menzies Conservative Macleod, AB
I guess have it here. I just haven't had the chance to read it then. Okay.
Gerald Schmitz Committee Researcher
On this point, there's also an unfinished business section about some of the pending possibilities, from where the last subcommittee left off. But that doesn't preclude the new subcommittee from going in another direction altogether.
The Clerk
My office has received requests from groups to appear before the subcommittee on human rights as well. I'm having those requests translated so that I can distribute them to all the committee members.
Liberal
Maria Minna Liberal Beaches—East York, ON
Maybe we could have that at our offices and think about them, and at the next meeting we can have a proper discussion about the future business. We haven't had a chance to think about things.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kevin Sorenson
Are there any other points of business that you want to deal with tonight?
If not, we are adjourned.