Evidence of meeting #1 for Subcommittee on International Human Rights in the 43rd Parliament, 2nd 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 Ms. Erica Pereira
Honourable members of the committee, I see a quorum.
I must inform members that the clerk of the committee can only receive motions for the election of the chair.
The clerk cannot receive other types of motions and cannot entertain points of order or participate in debate. We can now proceed to the election of the chair. Pursuant to Standing Order 106(2), the chair must be a member of the governing party. I am ready to receive motions for the position of chair.
Ms. Khalid.
Liberal
Iqra Khalid Liberal Mississauga—Erin Mills, ON
Thank you, Madam Clerk. It's wonderful to see you again.
I think in the last session we elected a wonderful chair who guided us and who was balanced. I'd really like to continue with that. I nominate Mr. Peter Fonseca to retake the position of chair for our committee.
The Clerk
Thank you very much, Ms. Khalid. It's been moved by MP Khalid that MP Fonseca be elected chair of this subcommittee. Are there any further motions? Is it the pleasure of the subcommittee to adopt the motion?
(Motion agreed to)
I declare the motion carried and MP Fonseca duly elected chair of the subcommittee.
MP Fonseca, I will turn it over to you.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Peter Fonseca
Thank you so much, Clerk. I want to thank Ms. Khalid for nominating me.
To all the members—I look to everybody here on the screen—I've had the opportunity to work with many of you in different committee and parliamentary work. It's a real honour to be able to continue to chair this committee. I know we have some previous chairs.
I believe, Mr. Reid, you were chair for quite a long time and we've heard about all the great work that you've done on this committee. Also, Ms. Vandenbeld has been a chair. I'm not sure if I'm missing anybody else who's been a chair, but I know everybody has participated in a very fulsome way on this committee.
When I say it is a special honour, it's because this is a very special committee. I know Mr. Chiu is new to the committee. I believe the rest, including Mr. Reid, are returning committee members. Everybody who has sat on this committee understands how special it is because of the way it works in a very non-partisan, consensus-finding manner. I think that has helped us manoeuvre through some very challenging files and issues, on which we were all able to roll up our sleeves and work so well together.
I believe we will continue to work in that vein. With that harmony, I'm sure we are going to be able to get a lot more good work done here in Parliament and able to dig into files that are important to our communities, to our country and to our standing in the world.
On that, I thank the clerk and the analysts we have with us because they are really the backbone of this committee and they serve us so well. I thank all of you. Also, I thank our interpreters who are helping us right now, and who—for those of us, like me, who are not bilingual—are able to support us with their good work.
I think at this time, Clerk, the subcommittee agrees that we'll proceed with the election of the vice-chairs.
The Clerk
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Pursuant to Standing Order 106(2) and the motion adopted by the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development, the first vice-chair must be a member of the official opposition.
I am now prepared to receive motions for the first vice-chair.
Conservative
The Clerk
Thank you. It has been moved by Mr. Reid that Mr. Chiu be elected first vice-chair. Are there any other nominations?
Is it the pleasure of the subcommittee to adopt the motion?
(Motion agreed to)
Thank you. I declare Mr. Chiu duly elected first vice-chair of the committee.
I will go on to the second vice-chair.
Heather McPherson NDP Edmonton Strathcona, AB
I would like to put a nomination forward please, Erica.
NDP
Heather McPherson NDP Edmonton Strathcona, AB
I would like to put forward the name of MP Brunelle-Duceppe, please, as our vice-chair.
The Clerk
Thank you.
It has been moved by Ms. McPherson that Mr. Brunelle-Duceppe be elected as second vice-chair of the subcommittee.
Are there any other motions? Is it the pleasure of the subcommittee to adopt the motion?
(Motion agreed to)
The Clerk
I declare the motion carried and Mr. Brunelle-Duceppe duly elected second vice-chair of the subcommittee.
Mr. Chair, over to you.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Peter Fonseca
Thank you very much.
Before we proceed to the consideration of routine motions, I'll ask you to put your hands up so that I'll be able to see you on the list and go in order of your raising your hands. Before we get to that, some of you, or maybe all of you, have already gone through these virtual settings through committees, but I'm going to go over some of the rules and how they work so that we can be as efficient as possible.
Before speaking, please wait until I recognize you by name. When you're ready to speak, you can click on the microphone icon to activate your mike. If a member wishes to speak in debate, they should use the “raise hand” function. This will signal to the chair your interest to speak. In order to do so, you should click on “participants” at the bottom of the screen. When the list pops up, you will see next to your name that you can click “raise hand”. Everybody should be able to see that.
Can I just see a nodding of heads to show that everybody can see that? That's all good. Terrific.
When you are not speaking, your mike should be on mute. Also, so you're aware, the webcast will always show the person speaking, rather than the entirety of the committee.
I'll now open the floor for discussion of routine motions.
I see Mr. Zuberi.
Liberal
Sameer Zuberi Liberal Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Congratulations on your elections to you and to all the vice-chairs. I'm really looking forward to this committee and to resuming our activity from the last session of this Parliament.
I have a series of routine motions that I'd like to present for us to adopt.
I'd like to start by saying that in the last session of this Parliament, we as a committee unanimously adopted a series of routine motions. I'd like us to readopt them with the exception of one motion, which deals with the questioning of witnesses.
For that, we did adopt a routine motion last time. In the interest of ensuring that we have adequate time given that we're currently on a new platform, which is Zoom, and we know from experience that there are sometimes some minor hiccups that do occur—sound checks, people logging in, bandwidth issues, etc.—we ask that we just slightly adjust that time in order to make things equitable so that everybody can ask a question in this committee and so we can all ask our questions. We also know that, with witnesses, the real meat of the testimony comes out in the questions and answers, and that's where we really get a very rich exchange, a very solid exchange, that helps inform us as a committee.
As for what I'm suggesting with respect to the questioning of witnesses, in the past we allowed for opening statements of 10 minutes. I'm proposing that instead of 10 minutes we have witnesses' opening statements of five minutes and then continue with the remainder of the routine motion as it was intact, as we voted upon it last time.
However, we recognize your discretion as chair and the discretion of vice-chairs when they are in your place to shepherd the conversation and, if you deem it appropriate, to allow for a longer time for the opening statements.
Just to sum up, I propose that we readopt the routine motions from the previous session, which we all agreed to last time, with one exception: that instead of having an opening statement of 10 minutes for witnesses, it would be reduced to five minutes, and that we allow for the discretion of the chair to determine if it should go on longer or not.
Thank you.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Peter Fonseca
Thank you, Mr. Zuberi.
I see that Mr. Reid has his hand up.
Ms. McPherson, did you use the “raise hand” button?
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Peter Fonseca
Okay, great.
Mr. Reid, go ahead with discussion on this, and then we'll hear from Ms. McPherson.
Conservative
Scott Reid Conservative Lanark—Frontenac—Kingston, ON
The first thing I would do is to ask Mr. Zuberi if he has actual wording. I'm not sure if the discretion part he's describing is actually part of the motion or is merely encouragement as to how we ought to behave, a general friendly direction to our chair.
Could I just go back and have him answer that question, Mr. Chair? Then I'd like to come back, depending on what he says, and offer some commentary.
Liberal
Sameer Zuberi Liberal Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC
The wording would be exactly the same as it was last time, except we would strike out “10 minutes” and replace it with “five minutes”, and then add one sentence to say “that the above be at the discretion of the chair”.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Peter Fonseca
I'm just going to weigh in.
My understanding is that if we see that a witness is coming to a conclusion but that they may go a minute or so over, we would have the flexibility to be able to provide that time.
Conservative
Scott Reid Conservative Lanark—Frontenac—Kingston, ON
Okay. Now I can comment on that.
I appreciate the fact that the wording was put in, Mr. Zuberi. That makes a big difference. If it were not there, I think the danger would be that we could be too mechanistic. I know from my own experience of chairing this committee for seven or eight years that there are two kinds of witnesses.
You may have already discovered this, Mr. Chair. There are United Nations officials or other types of people who are polished professionals, members of the public service. They will practise and get everything down, and time themselves in front of a mirror or with a stopwatch. Then you get people who are here talking about their experience when they were imprisoned or when they were tortured, and that kind of thing. The rule I always had was that you don't interrupt something like that, and that was back when they had 10 minutes. You had to give people the time. It was often an extraordinarily traumatic experience they had gone through.
This is my way of saying—and I hope you and others will agree with me, Mr. Chair—that when we have that kind of witness, we exercise very considerable generosity in extending it by more than just one minute. It's a big deal for those folks.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Peter Fonseca
I think I'm seeing all heads nodding in the same direction. Yes. Agreed.
Ms. McPherson.