Public Safety Committee on June 2nd, 2008

[The Chair, Conservative, Garry Breitkreuz]

Members, let's reconvene.

Mr. Ménard, you may introduce your motion. Go ahead whenever you're ready.

[Serge Ménard, Bloc, Marc-Aurèle-Fortin, QC]

Mr. Chairman, in accordance with standing order 122, I move the following motion:

That the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security consider and report to the House of Commons of the security issues raised by the relationship that the former Minister of Foreign Affairs had with a person with ties to organized crime, by inviting witnesses to appear, including: Prime Minister Steven Harper, Maxime Bernier, Julie Couillard, the Privy Council officials responsible for appointments and the RCMP officials responsible for security screenings, the Minister of Public Safety and Michel Juneau-Katsuya.

This is a recent matter which has developed very quickly, but which led to the resignation of the Minister of Foreign Affairs. It is therefore a very serious issue. There is no doubt that there was a breach of security. Thus, it is important for us to understand the scope and limits of that breach as quickly as possible.

That is why I am asking that the committee proceed with this investigation quickly.

[The Chair, Conservative, Garry Breitkreuz]

Thank you.

I have one person who has indicated they want to comment.

Ms. Thi Lac, please.

[Ève-Mary Thaï Thi Lac, Bloc, Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I agree with my colleague, Mr. Ménard. However, I would like to amend his motion by adding the following: "and that the study begin on Monday, June 9."

[The Chair, Conservative, Garry Breitkreuz]

We have an amendment here to suspend our study of tasers and all the business before the committee and to instead do this examination.

Ms. Priddy.

[Penny Priddy, NDP, Surrey North, BC]

Does the amendment not take precedence?

[The Chair, Conservative, Garry Breitkreuz]

Yes.

[Penny Priddy, NDP, Surrey North, BC]

Mine is not on the amendment. It's on.... Or does the amended...?

[The Chair, Conservative, Garry Breitkreuz]

We vote on the amendment first. If you want to speak generally, you may.

[Penny Priddy, NDP, Surrey North, BC]

So we don't have to vote on the movement of the date before we can move to the motion, or move to speaking to—

[The Chair, Conservative, Garry Breitkreuz]

Does anybody want to speak to the amendment?

Mr. Dosanjh.

[Ujjal Dosanjh, Liberal, Vancouver South, BC]

I'm just wondering whether the member would add a friendly amendment to the amendment. That would be to add “by inviting witnesses to appear before the committee, including”, and then all the witnesses who are mentioned.

There might be other witnesses we might want to hear from, and we should not be limiting ourselves.

[The Chair, Conservative, Garry Breitkreuz]

That's another amendment, so maybe you just want to rephrase that. How does that go again?

[Serge Ménard, Bloc, Marc-Aurèle-Fortin, QC]

Mr. Chairman, that is not an amendment, but would be a translation error. The French text does contain the word "notamment", and I pointed out earlier that that word had not been translated.

[The Chair, Conservative, Garry Breitkreuz]

Okay. So the translation is not correct.

[Ujjal Dosanjh, Liberal, Vancouver South, BC]

It should be corrected.

[The Chair, Conservative, Garry Breitkreuz]

We're going to go with the French motion, then, which mentions “including”. So your suggestion is not necessary.

[Ujjal Dosanjh, Liberal, Vancouver South, BC]

I'm satisfied.

[The Chair, Conservative, Garry Breitkreuz]

Mr. Cullen is next on my list.

[Roy Cullen, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

Actually, that was my same point, that we shouldn't be limiting it to just the people listed. So that deals with that.

[The Chair, Conservative, Garry Breitkreuz]

If there's no more discussion, we can vote.

[Dave MacKenzie, Conservative, Oxford, ON]

Mr. Chair, if we're going to talk about timing, the clerk has a table or a schedule of what the committee had already set.

[The Chair, Conservative, Garry Breitkreuz]

Do you want me to distribute this?

[Dave MacKenzie, Conservative, Oxford, ON]

I think we should, because I think people should know what will happen.

[The Chair, Conservative, Garry Breitkreuz]

This schedule starts next week. Today we were going to deal with the drafting instructions for the taser study, and then Wednesday....

I wish to inform the committee that our witnesses for the next meeting have all been confirmed, the six witnesses from the various first nations. That may help in your decision here.

Also, the clerk informs me that the people from the Ontario Flue-Cured Tobacco Growers' Marketing Board have been confirmed. They were to come next Monday.

Mr. MacKenzie.