Public Safety Committee on June 16th, 2022

[The Chair, Liberal, Jim Carr]

Welcome back, everybody.

Ms. Dancho, you have a hand up. Let me introduce the subject, and then we'll proceed at pace.

Pursuant to Standing Order 106(4), the committee is meeting to consider a request received by the clerk and submitted by more than four members of the committee regarding allegations of involvement of the offices of the Prime Minister and the Minister of Public Safety of politically interfering with the criminal investigation of the 2020 Nova Scotia mass murders.

Members have all received the letter. I will open the floor for debate.

Who would like to speak first?

[Raquel Dancho, Conservative, Kildonan—St. Paul, MB]

Mr. Chair, my hand is up.

[The Chair, Liberal, Jim Carr]

Yes, Ms. Dancho. I recognize you.

[Raquel Dancho, Conservative, Kildonan—St. Paul, MB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I'd like to move that the committee study the allegations of political interference in the 2020 Nova Scotia mass murder investigation and communications; that the committee (a) hold a two-hour meeting to hear from RCMP officials, including (i) Superintendent Darren Campbell, support service officer, Nova Scotia RCMP; (ii) Assistant Commissioner Lee Bergerman, Nova Scotia RCMP; (iii) Chief Superintendent Chris Leather, Nova Scotia RCMP; (iv) communications director Lia Scanlan, Nova Scotia RCMP; and (v) senior communications manager Sharon Tessier, RCMP; (b) hold a two-hour meeting to hear from, (i) Brenda Lucki, commissioner of the RCMP; (ii) former minister of public safety and emergency preparedness Bill Blair; (iii) deputy minister of public safety Robert Stewart; (iv) Minister Blair's former press secretary, Mary-Liz Power; and, (v) any other department officials involved in the 2020 Nova Scotia mass murder investigation and communications; and (c) that these meetings be held no later than June 30, 2022.

Mr. Chair, we are providing this motion to the clerk in both languages. He can distribute it immediately.

[The Chair, Liberal, Jim Carr]

Do we have comments on the motion?

Mr. MacGregor, the floor is yours.

[Alistair MacGregor, NDP, Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Actually, do you know what? I will give up my spot. I need to develop a few more thoughts on this.

Let me pass on this, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Jim Carr]

I'll go to you, Ms. Damoff.

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

Chair, could we suspend for a minute until we get the actual motion? It was read into the record, but we don't have a copy of it yet.

[The Chair, Liberal, Jim Carr]

Is there agreement from members of the committee that we suspend sufficiently so that members have a chance to look at the motion?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Liberal, Jim Carr]

Okay.

Clerk, let me know when the motion has been distributed and I can resume the meeting.

[The Chair, Liberal, Jim Carr]

I call the meeting back to order.

Let's continue with the speakers list.

Ms. Damoff, I believe you have the floor.

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

Thank you very much, Chair.

I have a couple of comments. Thank you to my colleague for bringing this motion forward and to all the colleagues for calling our meeting together today. These are important issues that this committee should be looking at.

I would remind everyone that there is the Mass Casualty Commission happening right now, where witnesses are under oath, just as they are in a court of law. We need to be mindful that we don't prejudice what's happening at that commission.

Commissioner Lucki will be appearing at the commission over the course of July. That's my understanding. That's a comment that will preface where I'm going with this.

The other thing is that next week—I believe it's on Wednesday—there's a memorial for Constable Stevenson, one of the....

Chair, I guess we need unanimous consent to continue.

[The Chair, Liberal, Jim Carr]

Are the bells ringing?

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

They are.

[The Chair, Liberal, Jim Carr]

Do we have unanimous consent to continue this discussion while the bells are ringing?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Liberal, Jim Carr]

Let's resume the discussion, Ms. Damoff.

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

Thank you, Chair.

Next week there is a memorial for the RCMP officer who was killed during the horrible mass casualty in Nova Scotia. It would be absolutely insensitive and disrespectful for us to call all of these RCMP officers, as well as Commissioner Lucki, to appear before a committee at the same time as this memorial is being held in Halifax.

I am going to suggest that we hold a three-hour meeting—just one—and that we remove Minister Blair's press secretary, Mary-Liz Power, and any other department officials involved in the 2020 Nova Scotia mass murder investigation and communications from the list. They're numbers (iv) and (v) under point (b). I would further amend the motion that the meeting be held immediately following the commissioner's appearance at the Mass Casualty Commission.

We would be able to ask these people questions following the commissioner's appearance. We would have more information at that time.

The other issue that we are running into, quite frankly, is that House resources are down from July 4 to 22. It would probably be in early August, but we would leave it to the chair to call the meeting immediately following the commissioner's appearance. I think we all have faith in our chair to do that.

Those are the changes I would propose to this motion.

[The Chair, Liberal, Jim Carr]

Ms. Dancho, I see your hand up.

[Raquel Dancho, Conservative, Kildonan—St. Paul, MB]

I'm sorry, Mr. Chair. Perhaps the clerk—

[The Chair, Liberal, Jim Carr]

I'm sorry, Mr. Clerk. Did you see other hands?

[The Clerk of the Committee, Mr. Wassim Bouanani]

Yes. Madame Michaud was next and then Mr. MacGregor.

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

Mr. Chair, to be clear, I moved the amendment to change the motion.

[The Clerk]

Mr. Chair, the debate is now on the amendment moved by Ms. Damoff.