Public Safety Committee on Nov. 29th, 2018

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

Shall clause 26 as amended carry?

[Glen Motz, Conservative, Medicine Hat—Cardston—Warner, AB]

On division.

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

Sorry. I apologize; it was unamended.

(Clause 26 agreed to on division)

I don't think that makes any difference to the vote. It made the right answer.

(On clause 27)

We are on NDP-21.

Go ahead, Ms. Blaney.

[Rachel Blaney, NDP, North Island—Powell River, BC]

Thank you.

This adds that spiritual leaders and others must be made available as an option as health care professionals at the prisoner's request and that meaningful consultation must be done with communities to ensure that they are culturally appropriate to the prisoner.

(Amendment negatived [See Minutes of Proceedings])

(Clause 27 agreed to on division)

(On clause 28)

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

On clause 28, we are now on PV-39.

Go ahead, Ms. May.

[Elizabeth May, Green, Saanich—Gulf Islands, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

This is based on evidence, again, from Senator Pate, who found that in this section the word “support” does not constitute an enforceable standard and is vague as a word. What I've offered is to provide the word “respect” as opposed to “support”, and hope that this word is less vague.

(Amendment negatived [See Minutes of Proceedings])

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

We have NDP-22, from Ms. Blaney.

[Rachel Blaney, NDP, North Island—Powell River, BC]

Thank you.

This adds that the service shall support the autonomy of elders and spiritual leaders.

(Amendment negatived [See Minutes of Proceedings])

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

We are now on amendment PV-40, from the Green Party.

[Elizabeth May, Green, Saanich—Gulf Islands, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

This is to clarify that the overall assessment and determination of an inmate's health status and care planning, interventions, and evaluation of care are the responsibilities of registered health care professionals and cannot be delegated to a non-registered person under their supervision.

This was specifically the Canadian Bar Association's concern that clinical decisions should only be taken by health care professionals under the Mandela rules.

(Amendment negatived [See Minutes of Proceedings])

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

Shall clause 28 carry?

[Glen Motz, Conservative, Medicine Hat—Cardston—Warner, AB]

On division.

(Clause 28 agreed to on division)

(Clause 29 agreed to on division)

(On clause 30)

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

We are now on clause 30.

We are at CPC-2.5 in the name of Mr. Motz.

[Glen Motz, Conservative, Medicine Hat—Cardston—Warner, AB]

Yes, Chair, we're proposing to add:

89.1 The Service shall, subject to security requirements, provide access to

I'm sure as MPs your offices as well as mine heard from Joanne Kehayas, who recommended that health care should be based on need, not on the designation of the facility by the commissioner.

She recommended that access be based on what is deemed necessary by a health care professional and with safety taken into account, and I believe that this would improve the bill by providing access to health care to those who need it based on medical advice, while still ensuring that safety is taken into account as well.

The language provided here is from our drafters at the House, who worked long and hard to get this done. Obviously some bills are more important than this one, because we were late getting this looked after.

I welcome the comments of our justice and corrections staff on this particular language before we vote.

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

Do the officials wish to comment on Mr. Motz's amendment?

[Angela Connidis]

Are we debating whether it's a justice question? You directed it to justice.

[Glen Motz, Conservative, Medicine Hat—Cardston—Warner, AB]

It's for justice or corrections, yes.

[Luc Bisson]

Maybe we could have a clarification here. We're talking about patient advocacy services, and as I understood your presentation, you were referring to health services. Those would be two distinct issues.

We are seeking to provide patient advocacy services where the commissioner designates those services that would be available. Safety and security are paramount features of the act and the bill; therefore, it would not need to be repeated.

Therefore, in our view, the amendment is not required.

[Glen Motz, Conservative, Medicine Hat—Cardston—Warner, AB]

It says here “health care matters” in proposed paragraph 89.1(a).

[Angela Connidis]

Yes, that's all under the patient advocate services.

The section Monsieur Bisson was referring to, section 3.1, says that “The protection of society is the paramount consideration for the Service in the corrections process.

[Glen Motz, Conservative, Medicine Hat—Cardston—Warner, AB]

Okay, thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

Is there further debate on CPC-2.5?

(Amendment negatived)

We are on PV-41.

[Elizabeth May, Green, Saanich—Gulf Islands, BC]

Thanks.

This one is also one of the recommendations from the Ashley Smith coroner's inquest, which is to say that sometimes you need not just family members but support persons. I'm using the language “support persons” to augment what might be considered family to help inmates who need contact. It's clear it would have made a big difference in the Ashley Smith case.

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

Is there any debate?

[Pam Damoff, Liberal, Oakville North—Burlington, ON]

I have a subamendment to Ms. May's amendment and it would be replacing the word “support persons” with “or an individual as identified by the inmate as a support person”.