Justice Committee on Nov. 4th, 2009

[The Chair, Conservative, Ed Fast]

That would be fine, and we'll circulate it from there.

I just need some direction from the committee. Do you want that witness to come, or are we moving directly into clause-by-clause?

The witness is someone by the name of Richard Sauvé.

[Joe Comartin, NDP, Windsor—Tecumseh, ON]

He's one of the people who has been through it successfully.

[The Chair, Conservative, Ed Fast]

We also have the minister coming on the 16th on Bill C-52, and my guess is it's going to take some time. We have at least four, if not five, amendments, government amendments on Bill C-36. So for me to add him, I'm going to need specific direction from the committee.

[Marlene Jennings, Liberal, Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Lachine, QC]

I would like to hear from someone who's been through this process, and from what Mr. Comartin tells us--

[The Chair, Conservative, Ed Fast]

Okay, so you do. Mr. Comartin obviously does.

[Marlene Jennings, Liberal, Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Lachine, QC]

--this witness that he suggests we have....

Is he available on the 16th?

[The Chair, Conservative, Ed Fast]

If the witness is available, given the fact that a majority on the committee want to hear the witness, we will have.... I'm discerning a consensus here; not a consensus....

Okay, why don't I just call for a vote? How many are in favour of hearing one additional witness on November 16?

[An hon. member]

Are we going to get to clause-by-clause on the 16th?

[The Chair, Conservative, Ed Fast]

I have no idea.

[An hon. member]

Well, it kind of matters.

[Rob Moore, Conservative, Fundy Royal, NB]

We would like to move to clause-by-clause on the 16th. We had a discussion about moving to clause-by-clause today. We're prepared to have clause-by-clause today, and now I see this being dragged out. We keep bringing out new witnesses on language.

[The Chair, Conservative, Ed Fast]

Mr. Comartin, the majority want to bring in your witness, but please, in the future--I'm not lecturing you--for my benefit, when we ask for a list of witnesses.... That probably happened about a month ago, and now at the last minute, we add another witness; it does throw some difficulty into the process.

[Brian Murphy, Liberal, Moncton—Riverview—Dieppe, NB]

Mr. Chairman, a point of information.

Lead us here; we're all amenable. You're going to have witnesses for what times, and then we're going to get into clause-by-clause by what time? On the 16th, that is.

[The Chair, Conservative, Ed Fast]

We've just received this request from Mr. Comartin, so the clerk and I haven't decided.

[Brian Murphy, Liberal, Moncton—Riverview—Dieppe, NB]

What do you think is a good idea? You're the chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Ed Fast]

You shouldn't ask me that question. You may want to ask Mr. Moore what a good idea is.

[Brian Murphy, Liberal, Moncton—Riverview—Dieppe, NB]

We have witnesses for an hour. Witnesses for an hour and clause-by-clause for an hour. Can we do that?

[The Chair, Conservative, Ed Fast]

No, because we have the minister coming on Bill C-52 on the 16th of November. That's the difficulty here. Had we known--

[Marlene Jennings, Liberal, Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Lachine, QC]

May I propose that we have the minister--I'm assuming we have him for an hour.

[The Chair, Conservative, Ed Fast]

That's correct.

[Marlene Jennings, Liberal, Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Lachine, QC]

We then move to the witness Mr. Comartin suggested and this committee voted to hear from. If there's time, then we move to clause-by-clause on Bill C-36. If not, it becomes the first order of business on Wednesday, the 18th.

[The Chair, Conservative, Ed Fast]

All right. We will hear the witness on the 16th. We will schedule clause-by-clause for the 16th as well and we'll see where it goes at that point.

The meeting is adjourned.