Evidence of meeting #121 for Justice and Human Rights in the 44th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was consent.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Liberal
James Maloney Liberal Etobicoke—Lakeshore, ON
Allow me to finish.
I think the point is that this is all about scheduling. It's not about the merits of the bill. It's not about the content of what the minister may or may not say or may or may not be asked when he attends. If we could keep the submissions focused on that, then, I'd be grateful.
Thank you.
Conservative
Michelle Ferreri Conservative Peterborough—Kawartha, ON
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Again, I've already said this, but obviously the member wasn't listening, which is fairly normal. When you add the ability to bring in a minister, that is the latitude to have a discussion about the supplementary estimates and everything that falls under the purview of the justice committee. It's no wonder the member wanted to interrupt me right when I was saying that after nine years of his government, the non-consensual distribution of intimate images is up 801%. That is why he would have interrupted me, Madam Chair.
I want to get back to these discussions about our children and keeping them safe.
I started this today by talking about sextortion. I hope many folks who have heard this term have never had this experience, but if you have children at home, you know they are on their cellphones. Children are getting cellphones at younger and younger ages.
What we've seen after nine years of Justin Trudeau is sextortion having gone up almost 3,500%. That's 3,500%. In 2015, there were approximately 65 cases reported. In 2023, there were over 2,500 cases reported. These aren't just numbers on a piece of paper. These are young children who are actually dying. They're dying by suicide because of these outrageous statistics.
Sextortion is used in a multitude of ways. It could be an exchange between two people and one asks for intimate images, which can be in a video or a photo. They then extort that person if they don't give them money, and they share the materials online and distribute them. There are also very big crime rings involved in this. We have—
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Lena Metlege Diab
Ms. Ferreri, I'm going to suspend for a few minutes. I need to speak to the clerk about a number of items—
Liberal
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Lena Metlege Diab
I'm going to ask members to return.
After discussion with the clerk and reading the process, I am ruling that the amendment to the motion, as presented, is out of order because it is irrelevant to the main motion.
I'm going to return to you, Mr. Bittle. I don't need any more points of order, unless you really have to. However, I have to say that what you put forth is out of order.
I'm going to let you continue, because you had the floor.
Liberal
Chris Bittle Liberal St. Catharines, ON
Thank you so much, Madam Chair.
Again, it's fundamentally clear that the Conservatives will do anything to prevent Mr. Viersen from testifying. They are embarrassed by even the thought of what he might say. It's not that they—
Conservative
Conservative
Laila Goodridge Conservative Fort McMurray—Cold Lake, AB
Madam Chair, I think it's worth pointing out that the government and Mr. Bittle, who is a member of the governing Liberal Party, were incapable of making an amendment that was acceptable. The entire power of the Government of Canada couldn't produce an amendment that was acceptable and in the right format.
Liberal
Liberal
Chris Bittle Liberal St. Catharines, ON
It's dripping with hypocrisy, Madam Chair, the things they call out when we rise on points of order are repeated on the other side. It is without irony that Ms. Goodridge rises on that.
I'll continue.
Again, it's clear they have no intention of letting him come to testify. It's not like they can prepare him for a week. They've had weeks to sit down and prepare him. They could have taken the hours of time they've spent on this to prepare him. When I practised law, we used to prepare witnesses before they came to testify. They don't even have faith that they can prepare him. They think so little of us, but they think we can overwhelm Mr. Viersen and make him reveal things. That's how little they think of him. They think we will run roughshod over Mr. Viersen. I guess he's willing to give up that information. On Mr. Erskine-Smith's podcast, he very easily gave it up. I'm surprised he went on that podcast. Again, they have had weeks to prepare him. I know he was busy on his hunting trip this week. He couldn't spare an hour or two to prepare to be a witness.
They talk a good game in terms of caring about victims, but when the rubber meets the road, they'd rather spend weeks to prevent someone from testifying than prepare him to start this study. We've been ready to start this study now for weeks. We could have done it. Maybe we could have agreed that he didn't have to lead the study. He could have gone last. I've seen ministers appear last on studies. There was no willingness to do that. They would rather get their gold stars and have the whip read victim statements that should have been heard, if they were willing to come to this committee. I sat through testimony similar to this when we studied Hockey Canada. All of the parties got together and said, “This is something we need to do and something Canadians want.”
Clearly, the fear of Arnold Viersen is so compelling for this party that they're willing to line up for hours with binders full of material to read off. It's hundreds of pages. Mr. Brock bragged that he had hundreds of pages he could keep reading before he had to go to another event. I'm sure that binder has been passed off to other people.
Conservative
Conservative
Laila Goodridge Conservative Fort McMurray—Cold Lake, AB
Madam Chair, they're not allowed to make commentary as to whether someone is or is not participating in debates. It is very similar to the rules that are in the House.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Lena Metlege Diab
This is public, so I think everybody sees who is in the committee.
Liberal
Chris Bittle Liberal St. Catharines, ON
Thank you so much, Madam Chair.
I think from the camera angle that Ms. Goodridge was captured on you could see the presence and absence of members. I won't call attention to it.
He said what he was going to do. We can go back in Hansard and read that he was going to another committee. He said it. He called attention to his own presence and absence. He is going to go and do more work.
I will move on.
Again, the embarrassment of Mr. Viersen is shocking. The Conservatives are so afraid of what he might say that they cannot even prepare for his testimony. It is ultimately very clear that they are willing to go all night and all day tomorrow to prevent this. They see this as a victory: talking this out for hours and hours, preventing witnesses from testifying and preventing Mr. Viersen from coming.
I hope there will be unanimous consent for the following motion: That the committee invite the Minister of Justice to appear for one hour on the supplementary estimates (B), and the committee—
November 18th, 2024 / 5:50 p.m.
Conservative
Conservative
Laila Goodridge Conservative Fort McMurray—Cold Lake, AB
Actually, it's quite relevant, Madam Chair.
Conservative
Laila Goodridge Conservative Fort McMurray—Cold Lake, AB
We are currently debating a motion, and you can't just move another motion—