Evidence of meeting #3 for Subcommittee on International Human Rights in the 43rd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was witnesses.
A recording is available from Parliament.
The Clerk
That's correct. Ideally, it would be tomorrow end of day, otherwise Monday end of day.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Peter Fonseca
And then, as far as keeping it open...but that might not be possible.
Liberal
Iqra Khalid Liberal Mississauga—Erin Mills, ON
Chair, will we be reviewing the list of witnesses before they're invited? If that's the case, we may want to take a day to go through that list also and have that discussion before they're invited.
I leave that to the committee.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Peter Fonseca
It would be those who are available; or are you saying even to invite?
Liberal
Iqra Khalid Liberal Mississauga—Erin Mills, ON
Yes, to invite.... I'm not sure if that's something people want to consider.
Conservative
David Sweet Conservative Flamborough—Glanbrook, ON
Mr. Chair, we'll be forthright with all of our names as of today. Any members who want to vet them can do so. If there's any problem, they can just explain to us why they're disqualified.
I think we'll have to do it electronically, first because of this pandemic and second because time is of the essence. I think if we get our names out in front of everybody, then I'm certainly comfortable, as long as I'm able to go on Wikipedia and see what that person stands for and that they're going to be....
I'm not even worried about what.... Obviously, this is a very sensitive issue. It's just whether they bring substantive weight to the study.
Liberal
Liberal
Sameer Zuberi Liberal Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC
I don't know if this is common practice, but when putting forth a name, do we give the motivation, even just a one-liner, as to why we are putting forth the name? Does that happen? It would be for the rest of us. For example, we would know the expertise of a certain witness being proposed. Can we do that?
Conservative
David Sweet Conservative Flamborough—Glanbrook, ON
For example, Mr. Chair, I would be proposing Jacob Kovalio, Ph.D., who has been an expert on Southeast Asia for 35 years. I would make sure you got that with the link to his work as well.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Peter Fonseca
Okay. That's good.
I was right that there's a culture here of consensus and collaboration and Kumbaya. I feel the love here. Oh, my goodness; it's great.
So we have the dates, and we kind of have a deadline for the witnesses—end of day Monday, but hopefully sooner; if we can, by end of day tomorrow.
Conservative
David Sweet Conservative Flamborough—Glanbrook, ON
Chair, can I just confirm some of the logistics, based on some of the input?
Conservative
David Sweet Conservative Flamborough—Glanbrook, ON
We'll send our witnesses directly to the clerk. Can the clerk distribute them to the members? That way, we don't have emails going back and forth.
Liberal
Conservative
David Sweet Conservative Flamborough—Glanbrook, ON
Just to go back to my first point, if all the members got links to our former work on Uighurs, they would have a working idea, as Iqra was mentioning, of how we could work off that.
It's good reading right before bed anyway.
Liberal
Iqra Khalid Liberal Mississauga—Erin Mills, ON
If we wanted to discuss or have follow-up questions on the witnesses proposed, would we just reach out directly to the member who proposed them? Would the clerk let us know who has proposed these witnesses?
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Peter Fonseca
I think we're almost there. Is there any other business?
Garnett, I think you want to get some more words in.
Conservative
Garnett Genuis Conservative Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB
I am new to this committee. Has it been the practice to invite public servants—they're not on my list right now—to share current government action around the file, or has the focus been just on external witnesses?
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Peter Fonseca
I'm new also. I'd have to look to David or Iqra or someone who's been here for a while, or ask the clerk.
I think Alexis was next, and then Sameer.
Bloc
Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe Bloc Lac-Saint-Jean, QC
That's good. It ties in with what Mr. Genuis just said.
Do ministers, such as the Minister of Foreign Affairs, for example, appear before the subcommittees as witnesses? Does this happen in this subcommittee?
I think that it would be good to have Mr. Champagne appear before the subcommittee.