Official Languages Committee on Nov. 1st, 2022

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

So they can't stand alone.

[Mario Beaulieu, Bloc, La Pointe-de-l'Île, QC]

Yes, just as theirs can't stand alone.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

Forget about theirs. Mr. Godin moved a motion containing a series of amendments. It's already done.

[Mario Beaulieu, Bloc, La Pointe-de-l'Île, QC]

I can send them to you in writing too—

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

What I mean is that if we vote on the subamendment you've moved and then you come back with your other subamendments—

[Mario Beaulieu, Bloc, La Pointe-de-l'Île, QC]

That's not going to work.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

All right. In that case, go ahead.

[Mario Beaulieu, Bloc, La Pointe-de-l'Île, QC]

On point four—

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

I have a point of order, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

Yes, Mr. Généreux.

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

Mr. Chair, Mr. Beaulieu just said he can send the series of subamendments he wants to move to you or to the clerk. Could we get a copy?

[Mario Beaulieu, Bloc, La Pointe-de-l'Île, QC]

Sure.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

We would really appreciate it.

[Mario Beaulieu, Bloc, La Pointe-de-l'Île, QC]

I don't know if they've been sent already. If not, they're in the process of being sent to the clerk.

[The Clerk]

What I've received are the two motions to change the dates on points one and two of Mr. Serré's motion, as amended by Mr. Godin, by replacing November 24 with Tuesday, December 6, and then—

[Mario Beaulieu, Bloc, La Pointe-de-l'Île, QC]

You've received the whole motion.

[The Clerk]

I just received an email. Do I have your permission to circulate the full document I just received?

[Mario Beaulieu, Bloc, La Pointe-de-l'Île, QC]

Yes.

[The Clerk]

It's been sent.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

All right. I think we all just received it.

Mr. Beaulieu, you can keep going and refer to your document. In fact, that will make it easier for everyone.

[Mario Beaulieu, Bloc, La Pointe-de-l'Île, QC]

Great.

Regarding the amendments to point two of Mr. Serré's motion, you can read what I just mentioned. I don't think I need to repeat it, but I can if you want.

As for point three of Mr. Serré's motion, we're not touching it. It calls for the clerk of the committee to write immediately to each member who is not a member of a caucus represented on the committee and to invite them to prepare and submit any proposed amendments.

On point four, to make it consistent with point two, we move that Mr. Godin's amendment be amended by replacing “no later than Tuesday, November 29, 2022, at 11:00 a.m. ET” with “no earlier than December 8, 2022, at 11:00 a.m. ET”.

Next, in the sentence “the committee proceed with clause-by-clause consideration of the Bill no later than Tuesday, November 29, 2022, at 11:00 a.m. ET”, we move that the date be changed to Thursday, December 8, 2022.

Lastly, we move that point five be deleted from Mr. Serré's motion and replaced with the following text, which I started to explain earlier:

That, in the context of the clause-by-clause study of Bill C‑13, the committee study, on a priority basis, the amendments that take the place of the requests of the Government of Quebec and the Francophone communities outside Quebec, namely: 1. That Bill C‑13, in Clause 2, be amended by replacing line 17 on page 1 to line 16 on page 2 with the following: “AND WHEREAS the Government of Canada is committed to respecting Quebec's choices regarding its language management, provided for in the Charter of the French Language;” 2. That Bill C‑13, in Clause 2, be amended a. by deleting lines 19 to 44 on page 2. b. by replacing line 6 on page 3 with the following: “that French is the official and common language of Quebec,” c. by replacing lines 16 to 29 on page 3 with the following: “AND WHEREAS the Government of Canada recognizes that English or French linguistic minority communities are present in every province and territory and that the English linguistic minority community in Quebec and the French linguistic minority communities in the other provinces and territories have different needs; AND WHEREAS the Government of Canada recognizes that the existence of a majority-French society in a Quebec where the future of French is assured is a legitimate objective and a fundamental principle of the Canadian official languages regime;” 3. That Bill C‑13, in Clause 3, be amended by replacing line 39 on page 3 with the following—

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

Mr. Beaulieu, I apologize, but I'm going back to my original idea. We're going to talk about your first subamendment, because now you're suggesting amendments to the bill before we've even heard from all the witnesses and carried out the clause-by-clause study. We can't have that. That's not a subamendment to Mr. Godin's amendment. Far from it.

[Mario Beaulieu, Bloc, La Pointe-de-l'Île, QC]

If I can just—

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

If you don't mind, we'll start with the parts relating to Mr. Godin's amendments.

[Mario Beaulieu, Bloc, La Pointe-de-l'Île, QC]

Can I just comment on what you just said?