Justice Committee on Nov. 27th, 2025

[Roman Baber, Conservative, York Centre, ON]

Thank you, Chair.

I hereby advise that the CPC will withdraw CPC-5, CPC-8, and CPC-11.

[Patricia Lattanzio, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

This is just to advise the committee members that we're going to be pulling back on LIB-3.

[Andrew Lawton, Conservative, Elgin—St. Thomas—London South, ON]

Just to confirm, is that the new LIB-3?

[Patricia Lattanzio, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

It's the new LIB-3, sorry. That's why you didn't have it.

[The Chair, Liberal, James Maloney]

You're withdrawing the new LIB-3.

[Patricia Lattanzio, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

Yes.

[Anthony Housefather, Liberal, Mount Royal, QC]

LIB-3 is about the Attorney General and the distinction between private and public prosecutions.

[Patricia Lattanzio, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

Let's make sure that you have the right one. The theme here is the AG consent.

Actually, there's only one.

[Anthony Housefather, Liberal, Mount Royal, QC]

There was never a new LIB-3. It was always the same LIB-3. It's fine.

Mr. Chair, again, with the indulgence that Mr. Baber asked for before, I think that you have an agreement among the committee to move to the Attorney General-related amendments, all of them, before we go to the next thing that's not an Attorney General-related amendment. I think there's BQ-1 and BQ-4.

Mr. Chair, I propose that we vote on amendments BQ‑1 and BQ‑4 before moving on to the next one. I believe that you can adopt them.

[Patricia Lattanzio, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

We can dispose of them.

[Anthony Housefather, Liberal, Mount Royal, QC]

Basically, it's that we do BQ-1 and BQ-4.

We've removed the other Attorney General-related ones, so we can finish with the issue of the Attorney General consent before we move to other amendments.

[The Chair, Liberal, James Maloney]

When you say “we're going to do them”, let's use precise language.

[Anthony Housefather, Liberal, Mount Royal, QC]

We treat them, BQ-1 and then BQ-4, before going back to the next one in order of sequence.

[The Chair, Liberal, James Maloney]

All right.

[Patricia Lattanzio, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

Mr. Chair, we just want to deal by themes. This would be specifically on the AG consent, the amendments on AG consent.

[The Chair, Liberal, James Maloney]

I understand. We've been doing a lot of things. I want to make sure I have the word “do” defined properly in this context.

Mr. Baber.

[Roman Baber, Conservative, York Centre, ON]

If I may, I thought I heard the legislative clerk say that there is no new LIB-3. There is a new LIB-3 by Mr. Housefather. The number ends with 153. That's the LIB-3 that I believe my friend pulled. Thanks.

[The Chair, Liberal, James Maloney]

I'm told we can vote on BQ-1, but we can't vote on BQ-4, because there's a line conflict with the NDP amendment, which in sequence comes first, so I don't know if that changes anything.

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

We can dispose of the NDP amendment, if you like. If this is an issue, let's proceed.

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

Mr. Chair, I move—

[The Chair, Liberal, James Maloney]

The floor is yours, Mr. Fortin.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I move that amendment BQ‑1 be adopted.

[The Chair, Liberal, James Maloney]

That's my kind of submission, just for the record.

Okay, we can do this by show of hands, or we can have a recorded vote.

It will be a show of hands.

(Amendment agreed to)

[The Chair, Liberal, James Maloney]

The amendment is carried.

We're voting on clause 3 as amended by BQ-1.

(Clause 3 as amended agreed to)

(On clause 4)

Now we'll go to clause 4 and NDP-1.

NDP-1 is deemed moved, pursuant to the routine motion adopted by the committee on June 17, 2025.

I'll give the floor to you, Ms. Idlout.

[Lori Idlout, NDP, Nunavut, NU]

Qujannamiik.

NDP-1 is an amendment on which I've consulted with civil liberties associations here in Canada. If approved, it would remove the portion of the bill dealing with symbols. This portion of the bill is problematic for several reasons.

First, it requires a defence for not being aware of the association with the symbol.

Second, the words “principally used by” or “principally associated with” are a problem because we don't know who needs to be having that association. The association of symbols can vary from community to community. The best example of that is the kaffiyeh, the traditional scarf worn by Palestinians.

The third reason this portion of the bill is problematic is that it relies on the terrorist list, which allows for potential political misuse by future governments.

To conclude, I would like to share very quickly that the organizations that expressed concerns about the symbols portion of this bill include the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group, the National Council of Canadian Muslims, Independent Jewish Voices and Egale.

While I have the floor, I wanted to share very quickly that because this bill was expedited the way it was, it was quite difficult to make sure we heard from as many people as possible. I've heard a lot of opposition to this bill. Preferably, it would be a bill that we can't support, but the only way to ensure that the NDP voice was heard and that the NDP could amplify the voices of these organizations was to submit this amendment.

Qujannamiik.