Public Safety Committee on Oct. 18th, 2023

[The Chair, Liberal, Ron McKinnon]

I just advised everyone to have no crosstalk. Please let us carry on.

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

You're just carrying water for the PMO.

[Doug Shipley, Conservative, Barrie—Springwater—Oro-Medonte, ON]

Anyway, I'm just trying to.... I was actually just going to put forward—

[The Chair, Liberal, Ron McKinnon]

Excuse me, Mr. Shipley.

Mr. Genuis, your remarks are offensive, and you should apologize for them.

Mr. Shipley, carry on.

[Doug Shipley, Conservative, Barrie—Springwater—Oro-Medonte, ON]

I like the word my friend from the NDP used, “tweaking”, so I'm going to bring forward a very small.... I think it's small, but the way this has been going lately, with emotions revving so high, comments flowing already and everybody with their hearts beating and stressing up, it will probably turn into another horror show, but here we go.

My amendments are for a reason. The reason....

Mr. Chair, every time I speak, he's throwing—

[The Chair, Liberal, Ron McKinnon]

I'm sorry; I didn't hear anything.

[Doug Shipley, Conservative, Barrie—Springwater—Oro-Medonte, ON]

Well, I can hear him loud and clear. I'm sure the whole room can.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ron McKinnon]

I have an earpiece in. Maybe that's what made the difference.

[Doug Shipley, Conservative, Barrie—Springwater—Oro-Medonte, ON]

It's not bothering me. It's just annoying me because—

[The Chair, Liberal, Ron McKinnon]

Let's avoid crosstalk.

Carry on, please.

[Doug Shipley, Conservative, Barrie—Springwater—Oro-Medonte, ON]

The reason I'd like to do a little tweak to it is that I had many texts, as well as a lengthy discussion with Mr. Danson, who is a very busy man. He informed me of that. He does want to attend. It would probably be virtually. My concern is that if we hold one three-hour meeting, it's going to be a little difficult. We're really putting him under the gun for a busy guy.

He has spoken to the families. It's just too much for them to attend, but they do want to have their words spoken to this committee through him, so I really think, in fairness, that if we just.... Basically, it's going to be the exact same amount of time, but if we do it over a couple of different meetings instead of the one three-hour meeting, I think that will make it easier for people to attend. Even taking something like today.... Let's say we had this three-hour meeting scheduled for today and we ended up having all of these votes, as we did; it would be very hard to get that three-hour meeting in.

My simple tweak—I'll use the word that my colleague used—is that I would like to put forward an amendment to replace the words “a 3-hour meeting” with “three meetings”—

[Peter Julian, NDP, New Westminster—Burnaby, BC]

Oh, come on, seriously?

[Jennifer O'Connell, Liberal, Pickering—Uxbridge, ON]

He's not serious about doing this study.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ron McKinnon]

Keep the crosstalk down, please.

[Doug Shipley, Conservative, Barrie—Springwater—Oro-Medonte, ON]

It turns out to be the same thing. It's just that we're not doing it all in one day. It's three meetings, and adding number five to still invite the former minister of public safety, Marco Mendicino. It's still six hours. We're not trying to do anything longer. I'm just trying to do it over three meetings so that we can make it a little easier, as I mentioned, for time constraints.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ron McKinnon]

Let's clarify what amendments you're proposing.

[Doug Shipley, Conservative, Barrie—Springwater—Oro-Medonte, ON]

I want to replace “a 3-hour meeting” with “three separate meetings”—so that's still just six hours—and add number five to Mr. Julian's motion that we still invite the former minister of public safety, Marco Mendicino.

I believe it is a tweak. I think that if everybody just steps back for a minute and takes a deep breath.... It's still six hours. It's the same. We're just doing it so that people have some options. It's very hard to invite witnesses and get people who are busy to attend.

I'm trying to make it easier for us—for you, Chair—to organize this, to get people here. It's not any longer. It's the same amount of time. It's just over three different meetings.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ron McKinnon]

We have an amendment on the floor—

[Doug Shipley, Conservative, Barrie—Springwater—Oro-Medonte, ON]

I'm not quite finished yet. I was just stopping so I could hear Mr. Bittle. It's always interesting.

So, that's all I'm looking for. I really do want to get this done. I think it's the same concept; it's not any more hours. We're just trying to make it a little easier. All of our meetings are usually two hours long. I want to have three two-hour meetings instead of, as we're saying here, one three-hour, one two-hour and one one-hour meeting. That's the only difference I'm putting in here, and I'm still inviting the minister. That's the only change to this.

I honestly thought this was just a tweak, but this has gone on so long—

[Chris Bittle, Liberal, St. Catharines, ON]

Are you still speaking?

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

That's because you're still speaking.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ron McKinnon]

Let's try to speak through the chair, please.

[Doug Shipley, Conservative, Barrie—Springwater—Oro-Medonte, ON]

Every time you talk, I'm just going to go on longer because it's just annoying.

[Chris Bittle, Liberal, St. Catharines, ON]

You're going to delay the representative of the victims' families from appearing. You're just going to filibuster even more. I thought you cared about witnesses—

[Doug Shipley, Conservative, Barrie—Springwater—Oro-Medonte, ON]

You don't want them to come.