Status of Women Committee on Oct. 6th, 2009

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

You had your hand up earlier on.

[Dave Van Kesteren, Conservative, Chatham-Kent—Essex, ON]

Yes, I did. I was--

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

You think you've said all you have to say?

[Dave Van Kesteren, Conservative, Chatham-Kent—Essex, ON]

Yes.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

That's okay.

Mr. Stanton.

[Bruce Stanton, Conservative, Simcoe North, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I have a question to Madam Demers.

The motion calls on the government to respond. Respond to whom? Is that to Parliament? It's not clear to me who the government is responding to. Is it to the United Nations, to the authors of the reports? It's a question.

I would say again, and I don't mean to be repetitive, that the motion is well placed, but really, in respect of committee members' ability to assess the question in front of them without the knowledge or the benefit of reading the report, it's almost impossible to make a decision on the question. I'm sure other members have looked at these reports, but some members clearly have not, so I think it would be out of place to expect members to be able to pass judgment on the motion in front of them.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you.

Monsieur Desnoyers.

[Luc Desnoyers, Bloc, Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC]

Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

As Ms. Mathyssen said, it has gotten to the point where, on a regular basis, things are happening to aboriginal women. We see that nothing is being done at any level of government, be it in British Columbia...

In my opinion, the federal government has a responsibility as Nicole said. We need to look at this issue and resolve it once and for all. I do not think that we need to apologize for that. We are saying that we need to follow up on this in order to resolve the problem. I think that this is a major and important issue.

Unfortunately, people seem to want to drag these things out. I don't know whether people are trying to get rid of this issue, but I think that it should not be our objective. Women are systematically being targeted when they leave reserves. The goal is to find solutions to this problem.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you, Mr. Desnoyers.

Mr. Van Kesteren, do you have anything specifically new?

[Dave Van Kesteren, Conservative, Chatham-Kent—Essex, ON]

I do. I want to point out that we don't disagree. With respect to the motion, the government has a choice: it can act on it or ignore it. If you want real action, we're suggesting that we do it the right way. Let's look at the two reports and respond to them; then we can do something that makes sense. I'm not the government; the cabinet is the government. I would suspect that if they got an order from our committee to respond to reports from Amnesty International and the United Nations, they would simply dismiss them rather quickly.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

There are a couple of questions that need to be answered by Madam Demers before she rounds up this issue. I would hope that the government would not so easily dismiss a request from a standing committee of the House. I don't think you mean the government would ignore it. If it comes from the standing committee, the government has to respond to it within a certain period of time.

[Dave Van Kesteren, Conservative, Chatham-Kent—Essex, ON]

I understand that. But what we're asking them respond to is a report from Amnesty International.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

I hope you wouldn't downplay the power of this committee as a committee of the House.

[Dave Van Kesteren, Conservative, Chatham-Kent—Essex, ON]

Certainly not.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Madam Demers, before you move on, there is a question to answer. To whom should the government respond? I think there was a bit of confusion. So I would like to make a friendly suggestion that your motion read:

That the committee call on the government to respond to the reports of both Amnesty International and the United Nations regarding the hundreds of young aboriginal women who have disappeared or been killed over the past thirty years in Canada.

That makes it clear what you're talking about. Would you mind those changes?

[Nicole Demers, Bloc, Laval, QC]

I know, Madam Speaker, but it is not to respond. Therein lies the problem, because, in French, it is "de donner suite aux rapports". I am not asking the government to respond to the committee or anything else, but to take action with regard to the Amnesty International or UN reports.

[An hon. member]

[Editor's note : inaudible]

[Nicole Demers, Bloc, Laval, QC]

However, you are reading in French, Sylvie. In French, it says "de donner suite aux rapports" it is not "to respond".

[Sylvie Boucher, Conservative, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

It doesn't say the same thing in French and in English.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

"De donner suite" yes.

[Nicole Demers, Bloc, Laval, QC]

"De donner suite", to act on.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

We now have Madam Demers explaining exactly what she means.

I wanted to say that, regardless of whether you follow up or respond, they still don't know what the report is saying. There are many people who don't know what the report says—they've never seen it or heard of it. You may want to deal with that when you respond.

Madam McLeod.

[Cathy McLeod, Conservative, Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC]

I think I would go back to that even if we could defer or table it. I remember we had a great conversation about tabling.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

We discussed “tabling” under the old rules.

[Cathy McLeod, Conservative, Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC]

Is it already available in French and English? I don't know. I would think we should wait until the reports have been circulated in both official languages.