Veterans Affairs Committee on May 1st, 2007

[David Sweet, Conservative, Ancaster—Dundas—Flamborough—Westdale, ON]

I echo those thoughts, and thank you, Mr. St. Denis, for the agreement. Unfortunately, years have gone by now.... In terms of May 29 and lining up with the United Nations, of course, if we could replay, it would be great, but the fact is there has been significant momentum across the country in different communities. The aspect of being in school is one of the reasons why Remembrance Day is still strong, because the teachers actually do bring the classrooms of kids. Unfortunately, August 9 does not have that dynamic, but hopefully we can engage the youth a little bit in some other way.

After listening to the witnesses I was pretty soundly on “peacekeeping”. When I heard the one witness talk about the personalization of “peacekeeper”, that resonated with me. So I guess it's just going to be incumbent upon the department to make sure, in all of the literature we put out, in all of the messages, that we broaden the message. It's going to be incumbent upon us to say how far “peacekeeper” reaches--to the RCMP, to the diplomats, to all those people who engage in peacekeeping operations.

So I'm in agreement with the others on where we are at the moment, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Anders]

I sense, then, that we generally have a consensus here as to the way it's going to take its form.

We didn't actually go through a formal situation with regard to amendments and voting and everything else, but we do have a clearer consensus as to what is to come out of this. So what I think I'd like to go with regard to this is....

The person who comes up with the final draft, this is your job, right, this is your gig? Do you have a clear understanding?

[Marc Toupin, Legislative Clerk, House of Commons]

We do.

[Brent St. Denis, Liberal, Algoma—Manitoulin—Kapuskasing, ON]

We can do the clause-by-clause. The amendments are not difficult.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Anders]

All right. Let's do that.

Are there any amendments to clause 2? No.

(Clause 2 agreed to)

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Anders]

The cleanest way to do this is to say, all those in favour of clause 3? I don't hear any. All those opposed to clause 3?

(Clause 3 negatived)

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Anders]

I think clause 4 is standard.

[Brent St. Denis, Liberal, Algoma—Manitoulin—Kapuskasing, ON]

The other amendments are in the preamble.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Anders]

Yes. We're going to go back to it.

[Brent St. Denis, Liberal, Algoma—Manitoulin—Kapuskasing, ON]

I see. Okay.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Anders]

I'll come back to that, absolutely.

Mr. Perron.

[Gilles-A. Perron, Bloc, Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC]

Clause 4, of the French version, refers to blue helmets. We need to change it to “peacekeepers” and add “Blue Helmets” in quotations or brackets after it. The change only refers to the French version.

[Marc Toupin]

I need you to clarify something for me, Mr. Perron. You are saying that clause 4 would read as follows in the French version:

4. For greater certainty, National Peacekeepers' Day (Blue Helmets) [...]

[Gilles-A. Perron, Bloc, Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC]

In quotation marks.

[Marc Toupin]

In quotation marks? All right.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Anders]

Okay. We have an understanding of how that works then?

Mrs. Hinton.

[Betty Hinton, Conservative, Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC]

In the first clause here we've changed--

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Anders]

I don't think we're there.

[Betty Hinton, Conservative, Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC]

It's the preamble, actually.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Anders]

Yes. I know. We're going to get there. We started at 2.

[Betty Hinton, Conservative, Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC]

Okay.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Anders]

Shall clause 4 as amended carry?

(Clause 4 as amended agreed to)

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Anders]

Now we're onto the short title.

Shall the short title carry?

[Brent St. Denis, Liberal, Algoma—Manitoulin—Kapuskasing, ON]

As amended.

[Marc Toupin]

Peacekeepers.