Evidence of meeting #9 for Public Safety and National Security in the 39th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was meeting.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Gord Brown Conservative Leeds—Grenville, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'd also like to see us add the NorthGate Group. to the list. They did the report that was commissioned by CEUDA. They spent a lot of time at all the border crossings across the country, so I think they would be a good group to hear from as well.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Garry Breitkreuz
I think if we discuss this next Tuesday, everyone can prepare suggestions for witnesses. I don't think we have to come up with an exhaustive list today. I think we have time to do this, if everybody's agreeable that we can discuss this further next Tuesday.
Any problems with putting it off till then?
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Garry Breitkreuz
Okay.
Let's see, as a steering committee, we also talked about...okay, we've dealt with Mr. Zaccardelli and Mr. Day coming.
We have the main estimates. The feeling of the steering committee with regard to studying the main estimates was that the members of the Security Intelligence Review Committee would appear before the standing committee. I understand they will be in town on Wednesday, November 1, and we could have a meeting from 3:30 to 5:30. Would you like to approve that right now and then we can confirm that?
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Garry Breitkreuz
November 1. This would be in the afternoon, 3:30 to 5:30, with the Security Intelligence Review Committee.
Just to remind you, they usually come to Ottawa about four times a year, so the window of opportunity to meet with them is quite limited. I think they could meet with us at that point. Would you like to confirm that invitation?
I've just been informed that this would be about their annual report, which is coming down in October. When that report is released, we'd have a chance to review it, and then you could ask them questions.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Garry Breitkreuz
Yes, according to my information, it is November 1, from 3:30 to 5:30.
Yes, Mr. Comartin.
NDP
Joe Comartin NDP Windsor—Tecumseh, ON
I think the problem is that the justice committee will be meeting. I'm looking actually for the clerk to confirm this. The schedule of the justice committee is changing after Thanksgiving, and I think we're going to Mondays and Wednesdays. November 1 is a Wednesday, Mr. Chair.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Garry Breitkreuz
Okay. Well, let me ask the clerk to make a comment.
Go ahead.
The Clerk
The members of the Security Intelligence Review Committee are part-time Governor In Council appointees. Their schedules are planned quite far in advance, and they were booked under the old schedule. I phoned to see about it and there wasn't much flexibility in moving that meeting. The decision would be whether we wish to meet with them at that time—and I realize that does provide a conflict for some of the members of the committee—or whether we put off the meeting.
NDP
NDP
Joe Comartin NDP Windsor—Tecumseh, ON
I was going to ask about meeting earlier in the day, but obviously we can't do that on a Wednesday.
Mr. Chair, do you have a sense of this? Is it going to take a full two hours?
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Garry Breitkreuz
Very often these things take longer than we anticipate, so I think we should schedule the whole time. If we don't need that time, that's fine, but I don't know that it would make a difference to our decision anyway. If the justice committee meets at 3:30, I don't think you would be missing a major portion of that meeting anyway, so maybe the justice committee is more flexible.
NDP
Joe Comartin NDP Windsor—Tecumseh, ON
I'm just thinking that we may be going through clause-by-clause on the bill at that point.
Why don't we go ahead and make the invitation, schedule it, and see what we can do?
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Garry Breitkreuz
Maybe work around it, get substitutes to come in or whatever.
Conservative
Liberal
Irwin Cotler Liberal Mount Royal, QC
Mr. Chairman, Justice O'Connor recommended something in his report that has gotten somewhat lost, and that is a review of the cases of the three other Muslim Canadian citizens who were detained in Syria. I'm talking about the Almalki, El Maati, and Nureddin cases. He recommended against an inquiry in those cases, but he did recommend a review of those cases and of the role that Canadian officials might have played with respect to their detention in Syria.
I'm wondering whether or not a review of those cases is something the committee could undertake as a matter of its business.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Garry Breitkreuz
We discussed this already, before you got here, and the feeling of the committee was to delay this until later. You probably aren't aware of the discussion we had.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Garry Breitkreuz
So perhaps we can continue that discussion next Tuesday. He's releasing his second report, and the committee felt that maybe we should just wait for that second report.
That's what happened before you got here.
