I have two motions related to the documents we received on January 26. I'm going to move one of them, but before I do that I'm going to give notice of the other one. I didn't have it translated in time the other day, so I'll give notice of it now, and I can move it at a future date.
I'll read it into the record, and we can provide it to the clerks to distribute to the committee.
That, pursuant to Standing Order 108(1)(a), the committee order that Veterans Affairs Canada provide and, if necessary, create a transcript of the recorded telephone conversation of July 21, 2022 (providing for the redaction of any personal information that would identify a veteran), referred to in the document referred to on page 230 of the documents submitted to the committee on January 26, 2023.
I'd also like to move the following motion:
That the committee:
(a) Recognize that Veterans Affairs Canada did not provide all the documents ordered according to the following motion, adopted on December 12, 2022:
—and then I have the text of the motion that was adopted, which can be referred back to, and then—
(b) Demand that all briefing notes, memos, emails and text or other electronic messages from Veterans Affairs Canada officials prepared for or sent to the Minister of Veterans Affairs regarding medical assistance in dying, or MAID, including related to the internal investigation into the matter, be provided to the committee within seven calendar days of the adoption of this motion.
You'll note, Mr. Chair and other members of the committee, that part (b) simply mirrors exactly the first portion of the motion we passed back on January 26. I suspect that nobody in this committee would have any disagreement with the motion, because we all agreed to it in the past. Unfortunately, it wasn't complied with entirely. I think some misunderstanding or miscommunication may have occurred, so I'm not blaming anybody at Veterans Affairs. I think it was an honest mistake, but it was a mistake, and the documents weren't all provided.
What we're asking for is just the rest of the documents. I think they apply to the date range in the second part of the motion, which is January 1, 2019 to December 7, 2022. Obviously, there was no limitation on that portion of the motion, so we're asking for the documents that would be outside that range.
You'll note that I've given a very short time frame, seven days. That's mainly because they should have provided them before, and I think that needs to be recognized. As a result, it should be done quickly. However, I'll also point out that it's quite unlikely there was any communication about medical assistance in dying prior to January 1, 2019, within Veterans Affairs. I would think that if any existed before that, it would be pretty limited, so we'd be talking about a pretty small date range—basically everything after December 7 last year. There shouldn't be a lot of records or require a lot of effort, but it is something that I think is important to this committee. We can see in the documents that there are some email chains, for example, that have been cut off. Obviously it would be important for the committee to be able to see the remainder of those chains.
I move that motion. I think it's pretty self-explanatory, and I'll leave it at that. Hopefully we can just vote on it and get the rest of the documents the committee has already asked for anyway. All we're doing is asking that this be followed through with. Hopefully we can pass it and get back to Ms. Hughes.