Evidence of meeting #24 for Subcommittee on International Human Rights in the 40th Parliament, 3rd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was report.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Russ Hiebert Conservative South Surrey—White Rock—Cloverdale, BC
You can't deal with a motion before you address the existing motion.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Scott Reid
No, no, but I think the question is in principle. Could someone introduce an amendment to the report in the form of putting this in as a recommendation? I think that's the question, and the answer would be yes.
Liberal
Mario Silva Liberal Davenport, ON
And there would be an opportunity to vote on it as well. Is that what you're saying?
Conservative
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Scott Reid
That's a question of principle.
I'll just go to Mr. Dorion for a moment.
Bloc
Jean Dorion Bloc Longueuil—Pierre-Boucher, QC
I have two questions. First of all, even if I vote against the motion as amended, that does not mean that we are against Canada joining the Human Rights Council, on the contrary. I put forward a motion on this that, unfortunately, the majority of the committee did not support. I am concerned by the use of the word “reforming”, which suggests to the committee that the Human Rights Council is somewhat deficient. That is not my opinion, nor my party's.
Secondly, I thought we had abandoned the idea of including it in the report. But the chair is once again saying that it would be part of the report. Could you clearly state whether you really intend to include this motion in the report? I thought we had dealt with that.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Scott Reid
I'm going to go to Mr. Silva and then Mr. Marston. If that question hasn't been answered in the process of discussion, I'll try to answer it. But let's go to Mr. Silva first.
Liberal
Mario Silva Liberal Davenport, ON
I'm sorry, I guess I didn't pay attention to how the vote went, Mr. Chair. If Mr. Dorion, who was the originator of 99% of this motion is not in favour of the minor amendment that was made, then I don't know why any other member of the committee would want to support it. If he's not voting for it, then I would also not be in favour of it.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Scott Reid
We'll go to Mr. Marston, and then I think I have to come back and answer Mr. Dorion's question. Then we can deal with the vote.
Mr. Marston, please.
NDP
Wayne Marston NDP Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON
To be very clear, Mr. Chair, my understanding is that this is a stand-alone motion, and if it's defeated, the option then is that it can be added to the report if the committee feels it wants to. But the vote here does not put it into the report in any fashion; we're still dealing with a stand-alone motion. As a result of that, I can support it.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Scott Reid
All right.
Is there any more debate? I've been a bit fast on this in the past, so I'll just check.
Okay. So the answer to Mr. Dorion's question, effectively, was given by Mr. Marston. We'd be voting on this as a stand-alone item. If it's defeated, or indeed if it's passed, it can still be put into the report because the report is being discussed as a separate item.
Now, is there any more discussion?
Let's have a vote on this then.
Bloc
Bloc
Jean Dorion Bloc Longueuil—Pierre-Boucher, QC
There have been so many discussions and changes that....
Bloc
Jean Dorion Bloc Longueuil—Pierre-Boucher, QC
For the sake of consensus and Canada's membership in the council, I will support it.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Scott Reid
All right. So we're voting on the main motion as amended.
Is everybody clear about that?
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Scott Reid
All those in favour of the motion as amended?
(Motion as amended agreed to [See Minutes of Proceedings])
May I suggest now that we go back in camera to deal with the UPR report. If we manage to complete that, we can go public again and deal with another of Monsieur Dorion's motions.
Would that be acceptable to the group?