Justice Committee on March 9th, 2021

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Liberal, Iqra Khalid]

Thank you very much, gentlemen and ladies. I appreciate that.

As per the committee's request for some extra witnesses, I just want to give you an update as to which ones we've invited and the responses.

Monsieur Fortin, you asked us to invite Loto-Québec. Unfortunately, they declined the offer to appear.

Mr. Masse and Mr. Moore asked us to invite the Canadian Football League. They have declined to appear but will be providing written submissions.

You saw some of our witnesses today. The Horsemen's Benevolent Association was from the list of requests to appear. The National Hockey League has been invited, and I understand they will be attending. Racetracks of Canada was also from the list of requests to appear, and we heard from them today as well as from Club Jockey du Québec.

From the list of requests to appear, the Canadian Soccer League has also been invited and so has Sandy Hawley.

If any members have anything else to add, please get in touch with me and our clerk, and then we'll go accordingly.

[Kerry-Lynne Findlay, Conservative, South Surrey—White Rock, BC]

I have a point of clarification, Madam Chair.

You mentioned the CFL. I think we invited both the CFL commissioner as well as the CFL Players' Association. When they contacted me, they both thought they were testifying, so when you say CFL, do you mean the league, or do you mean the players association?

[The Chair, Liberal, Iqra Khalid]

No, I meant the Canadian Football League, but perhaps we can revisit that based on what you're advising us. We'll have a conversation with the clerk afterwards and ensure that they're represented here at least. The actual league, the CFL, did advise us that they'll be providing written submissions regardless.

Just so members are aware, at our next meeting on Thursday, we will be having Minister Lametti appear in the first hour, and then the second hour will be officials only. We'll be meeting about the supplementary estimates (C) 2020-21 and the main estimates for 2021-22. Keep that in mind as we go into our next meeting.

We have a break week in between, and then March 23 will be the last meeting on C-218. On the 25th, the first hour will be dedicated to considering the draft report for the coercive conduct study, and then in the second hour, we'll go into clause-by-clause for Bill C-218.

Those are my updates with the agenda.

Mr. Moore, I see your hand is raised.

[Rob Moore, Conservative, Fundy Royal, NB]

Thanks, Madam Chair.

On the minister's appearance on Thursday, I think there was an expectation amongst committee members—certainly it was my expectation—that, because the minister is appearing on two items, he would be here for the full two hours.

As you know, that first hour whips around pretty quickly. We don't get many opportunities to have the minister at committee, so I would ask maybe, through you to the minister's parliamentary secretary, Mr. Virani, if we could see about having the minister here for the full two hours.

[The Chair, Liberal, Iqra Khalid]

Mr. Virani, if you'd like to comment, you can, or I'll go to our clerk to see what the logistical challenges are.

[Arif Virani, Liberal, Parkdale—High Park, ON]

Thanks to Mr. Moore for the question via you, Madam Chair.

What I can say is that Minister Lametti had intended to be here for one hour, and my understanding was that the second hour was meant to be with respect to the continuation of the deliberations on the coercive control report. I apologize if I have that incorrectly, but it was my understanding that Minister Lametti was available for one hour.

I can make inquiries while we're having this meeting to see whether the second hour may be available, but I know he's put aside one hour at this point with the second hour being allocated for the department officials.

[The Chair, Liberal, Iqra Khalid]

Thank you very much. We'll follow up on that.

Mr. Clerk, if you had anything to add on this, you're welcome to do so now.

[The Clerk of the Committee, Mr. Marc-Olivier Girard]

I'm sorry, Madam Chair. I cannot say that I heard the last few seconds of what you said, but I have no further update.

[The Chair, Liberal, Iqra Khalid]

Thank you for that.

Mr. Moore, we'll definitely look into it. We'll keep you posted before Thursday as to what is happening.

Now we go into Monsieur Fortin's three motions with respect to language and interpretation in committees and documents.

Monsieur Fortin, I think we've all had the opportunity to look at these motions.

If you'd like to speak to them briefly, then we can go to the clerk to provide us with the logistical issues or challenges, or a breakdown of what each motion would entail.

Go ahead, Monsieur Fortin.

[Rhéal Fortin, Bloc, Rivière-du-Nord, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

These are straightforward motions that have already been discussed by the Board of Internal Economy and the whips. I gather that this shouldn't be an issue.

I won't go into them any further. I'll read them. I'll start with the first one, which is quite short.

That all documents submitted for Committee business that do not come from a federal department or that have not been translated by the Translation Bureau be sent for prior linguistic review by the Translation Bureau before being distributed to members.

We just need to make sure that the documents that we receive are written properly in both official languages.

[The Chair, Liberal, Iqra Khalid]

Thank you, Monsieur Fortin.

Mr. Moore, I see your hand is raised on this.

[Rob Moore, Conservative, Fundy Royal, NB]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you to Mr. Fortin for bringing this forward.

On what I would call a friendly amendment, I would like to—

[Brian Masse, NDP, Windsor West, ON]

On a point of order, we've lost sound in this room.

[The Chair, Liberal, Iqra Khalid]

Hold on, folks, for a second. I'll get in touch with the clerk.

Are you able to hear us, Mr. Masse?

[Brian Masse, NDP, Windsor West, ON]

It's back on now, yes.

[The Chair, Liberal, Iqra Khalid]

Wonderful. Thank you.

Mr. Moore, please go ahead.

[Rob Moore, Conservative, Fundy Royal, NB]

What I was about to say was fairly profound, so I want to make sure each and every person hears it.

My friendly amendment would be that after the words “federal department”, we add a comma and then “members' offices”, so that documents coming from our offices would be included as those that do not come from a federal department or that have not been translated by the Translation Bureau.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Iqra Khalid]

I appreciate that, Mr. Moore, but for the sake of keeping things the least confusing as possible, maybe we should go motion by motion.

The first motion is as follows:

That the Clerk inform each witness who is to appear before the Committee that the House Administration support team must conduct technical tests to check the connectivity and the equipment used to ensure the best possible sound quality; and that the Chair advise the Committee, at the start of each meeting, of any witness who did not perform the required technical tests.

Do any members have any issues or anything to add to this motion, or are we able to vote on this motion and get it passed at this time? Then we'll move on to the other two motions.

(Motion agreed to)

Mr. Moore, you were suggesting a friendly amendment to motion number two, which if we follow it, would read with the amendment, “That all documents submitted for Committee business that do not come from a federal department or a member's office, or that have not been translated by the Translation Bureau, be sent for prior linguistic review by the Translation Bureau before being distributed to members.”

Do members agree with Mr. Moore's friendly amendment to motion number two?

Yes, Monsieur Fortin.

[Rhéal Fortin, Bloc, Rivière-du-Nord, QC]

I agree, Madam Chair. However, I want to make a comment.

Not long ago, a committee member sent me a motion that had been poorly translated. The French version was quite different from the English version. The clerk may remember this. He took it back and provided a translation that we could work with. I want to say that this is important. Otherwise, we have a skewed understanding of the debates.

That said, I'll support Mr. Moore's proposal.

Thank you, Mr. Moore.

[The Chair, Liberal, Iqra Khalid]

You agree to the amendment.

Does everybody agree to the motion as amended?

(Motion agreed to [See Minutes of Proceedings])

Thank you.

Now we move on to motion number three with Monsieur Fortin.

[Rhéal Fortin, Bloc, Rivière-du-Nord, QC]

I won't be moving the third motion at this time. I've spoken with people in the whip's office. Other committees have also addressed the issue. Perhaps we'll prepare a new motion that will achieve greater consensus.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Iqra Khalid]

Are you seeking to withdraw the motion, Mr. Fortin?

[Rhéal Fortin, Bloc, Rivière-du-Nord, QC]

I don't want to withdraw it. I just won't move it at this time. It will stay in the notices.

[The Chair, Liberal, Iqra Khalid]

Okay. That's fair.