Status of Women Committee on Dec. 12th, 2006

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Order, please.

Ms. Stronach.

[Belinda Stronach, Liberal, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I'd like to go over this motion with the intent that it could be studied and, hopefully, included in the final report from the committee. It was brought up more towards the end of the number of witnesses we saw, and it's on the positive impact of having a national rapporteur on human trafficking in Canada. Since we've heard throughout our witness testimony about the lack of education and the lack of statistical data, and just to make this a priority issue for the country to show leadership on, I think this suggestion is very worthwhile studying and that it should not be overlooked.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Would you read the motion into the record, please?

[Belinda Stronach, Liberal, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

The motion reads as follows:

That the House of Commons Standing Committee on the Status of Women considers studying the possibility of establishing a National Rapporteur on Human Trafficking in Canada. The study would provide information on the role of the Special Rapporteur on Human Trafficking to continue to examine ways and means of overcoming existing obstacles to the full and effective protection of the human rights and fundamental freedoms of people.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Is there any discussion on this?

Ms. Guergis.

[Helena Guergis, Conservative, Simcoe—Grey, ON]

I just wanted to say that I support the motion. I think it's a very good idea.

Further to that, I was thinking that we might even consider it as part of a first report, as part of one of two reports maybe, or something of that sort. Maybe we could extend our hours and proceed with scheduling hours to study this specifically around the table, but in addition, consider other witnesses with respect to human trafficking.

I have a motion here that I'd like to hand out, and we can talk about it now and include it in this, or we can do it another time. A woman by the name of Linda Smith, who some of us may or may not be familiar with, would probably have some great information to add to Ms. Stronach's suggestion for her study. I'd like to see her called as a witness before us, and perhaps we could identify other witnesses, and support this motion.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Is there any further discussion?

[Belinda Stronach, Liberal, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

I thank the member for her comments. It's part of the motion.

I think it would be a shame if we weren't able to include this in this comprehensive study done now, because I think it really goes to the core of what we've heard throughout in terms of information and coordination. It's a way of linking together a lot of these activities that we've heard of. If this government wants to show leadership on this issue, I think it's a really positive step forward for you to deal with it by highlighting that.

So I'd like to see it included in this report.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

You're suggesting that this be considered a recommendation in the report?

[Belinda Stronach, Liberal, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

Yes.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Ms. Guergis.

[Helena Guergis, Conservative, Simcoe—Grey, ON]

I'm not opposed to that, but I do have some concern. I think we haven't heard enough information in order to give a solid recommendation on that, specifically on a national rapporteur. Maybe if that's what we're considering, I think we should indicate in the report that this is an interim report, a first report, and that we are going to do further study.

The motion says that we should consider studying the possibility. Yes, we've gone through a big study, but I think this motion suggests that we need even more study. It recognizes that perhaps we haven't done enough, or else it would have been included already as a recommendation based on a number of witnesses' testimony.

So maybe the first report can be an interim report, with the full intent that we'll be coming forward with more information on this, in addition to the witness I'm talking about—Homes of Hope and Linda Smith. I'm sure the good work she's done will support Ms. Stronach's recommendation. I don't think we can just throw it in there as an add-on; I think it deserves a little more recognition than just adding it as a recommendation at the end. I think we should be having another report come forward.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

But in reading the motion, it does say that the “Committee on the status of women considers studying the possibility of establishing”. It sounded, from the information we received from the witnesses, that it is something else that would help us achieve the goal we're trying to deal with.

I have Ms. Smith, Ms. Stronach, and Ms. Minna.

[Joy Smith, Conservative, Kildonan—St. Paul, MB]

I like this motion. It has lots of possibilities, and I like the idea of studying it. However, if we think back to our witness who talked about the Swedish model, she had mixed reviews about that initiative. Also, in our own report, we recommended that a special office be set up, and that office would make these decisions. So I would hate to put....

I think this is a very well-intentioned idea, but I just think that even if we had one meeting afterwards on this particular issue, we could have a better assessment of it. It was mentioned once during the presentations and it had mixed reviews. I would hate to actually recommend something because, in talking to people outside this office or committee, there were mixed reviews of it as well.

So as much as I like the motion and its intent, I think we do need further study of this, even if it's only for one or two meetings.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Ms. Stronach, and then Ms. Minna.

[Belinda Stronach, Liberal, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

I'd be fine with a meeting or two, just as you suggested, and then if there is enough will among the committee members, it would be considered to be put into this report.

[Helena Guergis, Conservative, Simcoe—Grey, ON]

So will we be holding off, then?

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Can I just ask a question? Ms. Guergis had also submitted a motion. It wasn't within the 48 hours, but it is pertaining to what we're talking about here. Can you distribute that motion?

I'm not going to deal with it. I just think that the committee might as well look at it so that we can save time while we deal with the rest. The idea would be, at our next meeting, when we—

I'm sorry. Ms. Minna.

[Maria Minna, Liberal, Beaches—East York, ON]

Madam Chair, I just want to say two things.

First, obviously we tried to get this motion into a report, if you recall, last time. I'm still of the opinion that this would be good. I don't mind having the researchers come back to us when we meet next time to give us an idea of how it has worked elsewhere and what kind of mandate this particular position has. Then we could decide whether we wanted to include it in the report. But I do not want to spend time and make this report only an interim report where we come back and study it all over again.

Frankly, we've looked at it. We want to make recommendations and move on. The only thing we need to do when we come back is, with additional information from our researchers, decide whether we want to put this into the report. It's as simple as that, and the report then is done.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

We could have the clerk arrange for the analyst to get some information over the holidays, possibly, and bring all of that to our first meeting when we're back, so that we could hear from a witness or two, and the analyst, on the impact of this. Then at the end of that meeting, when we go back into the draft report, we could decide whether to include it and, at the same time, be able to deal with another issue.

Ms. Guergis.

[Helena Guergis, Conservative, Simcoe—Grey, ON]

I want to point out that the idea of an interim report was simply that I didn't want to see us delay the report. It wasn't for any reason other than that.

But if we are going to delay just for a meeting to hear from the witness I've suggested and perhaps other information from the researchers and such to help with Ms. Stronach's motion, I'm happy to wait before we put it in and have it completed the way we want it to be. I just didn't want to see a delay, that's all.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

So in adopting this motion and Ms. Guergis' motion, which ties into a similar thing about one more meeting for a couple of witnesses, the analyst would get us some additional information so that we all fully understand the benefits of having a national rapporteur and we can make that decision at the end of that meeting. Then we would have one more meeting to go over the final draft report. So we'll allocate that way.

We move adoption of Ms. Stronach's motion.

I'm sorry. Mr. Stanton.

[Bruce Stanton, Conservative, Simcoe North, ON]

Madam Chair, I agree with the commentary so far by the committee members. However, it has been indicated that we should really be considering having this included in report recommendations. That's not stated in the motion. It's not clear in the motion.

I wonder if we could add a phrase that would consider that, after the review of this issue by the committee in one or two meetings, those committee recommendations in respect of this issue be included in the report.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Yes, good.

Ms. Mourani.

[Maria Mourani, Bloc, Ahuntsic, QC]

Madam Chair, I only ask for one meeting. We can't keep hearing witnesses. This motion leaves the field open to hear witnesses concerning human trafficking. I would like to table the report as soon as possible.