House of Commons Hansard #391 of the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament's site.) The word of the day was seniors.

Topics

Shootings in New ZealandRoutine Proceedings

3:55 p.m.

Liberal

The Speaker Liberal Geoff Regan

Does the hon. member for La Pointe-de-l'Île have the unanimous consent of the House to add his remarks?

Shootings in New ZealandRoutine Proceedings

3:55 p.m.

Some hon. members

Agreed.

Shootings in New ZealandRoutine Proceedings

3:55 p.m.

Bloc

Mario Beaulieu Bloc La Pointe-de-l'Île, QC

Mr. Speaker, I join with the members of the other parties in expressing our solidarity with the people of New Zealand as they go through the terrible ordeal they currently have to face.

Once again last Friday, people around the world were horrified by the hateful act of a terrorist who robbed 50 innocent people of their lives in Christchurch, New Zealand. Fifty people were killed simply because they wanted to practise their religion in peace.

On behalf of the Bloc Québécois, I wish to extend my deepest condolences to the victims' loved ones, the citizens of Christchurch and the people of the Muslim faith. Muslims there, like here, feel less safe today than they did yesterday.

I wish them the courage they will need to get through this ordeal. I want to tell them that we stand with them, that we join everyone else around the world who stands in solidarity with them. I want them to know that humanity will triumph over this horror and hate.

I want to tell them that, despite their pain, they will see that their community is full of heros, people like Abdul Aziz, more than they could have imagined, people willing to sacrifice everything for their fellow humans, and that together they will find the strength to face every new day.

The Christchurch tragedy shows that we need to remember that hatred toward Muslims is unacceptable and must be condemned at every opportunity. It is important to reiterate that. We need to condemn every word before it poisons the atmosphere, before that atmosphere turns into irreparable acts, before the actions taken by a murderer in Sainte-Foy become an inscription on the gun of a terrorist in New Zealand, on the other side of the world. That is our responsibility, one that we must fulfill in memory of all those who lost their lives in Christchurch.

It is important to remember that everyone has the right to worship as they see fit, should they choose to do so, without any fear for their safety. Everyone has the right to worship freely. That is one of the pillars of our society, of our rule of law. It is one of the most fundamental freedoms of the western world, one that must be upheld at any cost.

We must remember that freedom that unites us and tirelessly condemn the hate speech that divides us. We need to condemn those words of hate before they take root. We need to tirelessly condemn the conspiracy theories that cloud the judgment of the easily impressionable. That is everyone's responsibility and we must fulfill it in memory of all those who lost their lives, not only in Christchurch, but also in Sainte-Foy, at the École Polytechnique, in Paris, in Nice, in Charleston, in Pittsburgh, in Norway and anywhere else where hatred momentarily won out over compassion.

Shootings in New ZealandRoutine Proceedings

3:55 p.m.

Green

Elizabeth May Green Saanich—Gulf Islands, BC

Mr. Speaker, like all of my colleagues, I share in the deep grief of the people of New Zealand, and particularly the Islamic population of New Zealand as neighbours, friends and worshippers.

This is a horrific act of violence, and I appreciate so much that the Prime Minister shone a light on the fact that there are white supremacists in Canada who harbour the same kinds of views as the perpetrator of this act, this atrocity.

Those are hard words to say because Canadians are so very nice. We really are. Over the two-week break we had, I was in community after community for town hall meetings and there is no question that Canadians, as a people, are a family. We may want to create divisions, region against region, but they are not real. Canadians are inherently really wonderful, loving, compassionate human beings. That we have such a thing as white supremacy anywhere in Canada should be as deeply disturbing to all of us here as it is to everyone across the country.

I will turn to New Zealand for a moment.

It does not fail to strike me with deep irony that the people of Christchurch were visited by another act, a natural disaster, that cut right to the heart of that community. The earthquake of 2011 killed 185 people. I am not speaking for New Zealanders, but given the commentary from people who were near the shooting and impacted by it, and as my friend James Shaw, who is a parliamentarian in New Zealand and co-leader of its green party would agree, I do not doubt that this act of violence has been more deeply painful to the people of Christchurch than even the earthquake that obliterated centuries of monuments and killed so very many.

That brave young woman Prime Minister of New Zealand has all of our support. I so appreciate that the Prime Minister spoke to her directly. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has already proven herself to be a strong woman in politics, as she is the first prime minister anywhere in the world to give birth while in office. However, this should never have come on her watch. It is so unfair.

I note her words in the moments after the killings. Speaking of the victims in the mosque, she said, “They are us. The person who has perpetrated this violence against us is not.” She has completely excluded those who would do such a thing from having any right to feel that they belong in New Zealand.

We must do the same in Canada. We must be prepared to tell people who are attracted to a white supremacist movement that they do not belong in Canada and that they are not us. Those who are attracted to a rally where there are signs that suggest there are white supremacists in the group should not show up. They should not speak there. We should give no oxygen, even accidentally. All of us in political life must give no oxygen to hatred, violence, anti-Semitism, misogyny and Islamophobia.

We must stand together as Canadians and know that the people we represent call on us to be our best selves, to love one another and our neighbours and to be the kinds of people who will stand outside a mosque with a sign that says, “I'm a Christian but I'm here while you worship. I've got your back. I'm watching for you” or “I'm a Jew, but I'm standing here outside your mosque, as you will stand outside my temple.” We should stand together in places that are secular and religious, in faith and as family. No hatred must be allowed to take root in this country.

We stand with the people of New Zealand. We say, “God bless you” for what they are going through. As-salaam alaikum. We are together as family on this planet. Let no hatred take root here.

Shootings in New ZealandRoutine Proceedings

4 p.m.

Liberal

The Speaker Liberal Geoff Regan

Allow me to thank the right hon. Prime Minister, the hon. Leader of the Opposition and the hon. member for Burnaby South.

I thank the hon. member for La Pointe-de-l'Île and the hon. member for Saanich—Gulf Islands for their eloquent remarks.

There have been discussions among all of the parties in the House, and I understand that there is consent to observe a moment of silence in memory of the victims of the attacks at the mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand.

I invite hon. members to rise.

[A moment of silence observed]

Procedure and House AffairsCommittees of the HouseRoutine Proceedings

4:05 p.m.

Liberal

Larry Bagnell Liberal Yukon, YT

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Standing Orders 104 and 114, I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the 87th report of the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs regarding the membership of committees of the House, and I would like to move concurrence in the report now.

Procedure and House AffairsCommittees of the HouseRoutine Proceedings

4:05 p.m.

Liberal

The Speaker Liberal Geoff Regan

Does the hon. member have the unanimous consent of the House to move the motion?

Procedure and House AffairsCommittees of the HouseRoutine Proceedings

4:05 p.m.

Some hon. members

Agreed.

Procedure and House AffairsCommittees of the HouseRoutine Proceedings

4:05 p.m.

Liberal

The Speaker Liberal Geoff Regan

The House has heard the terms of the motion. Is it the pleasure of the House to adopt the motion?

Procedure and House AffairsCommittees of the HouseRoutine Proceedings

4:05 p.m.

Some hon. members

Agreed.

Procedure and House AffairsCommittees of the HouseRoutine Proceedings

4:05 p.m.

Liberal

The Speaker Liberal Geoff Regan

(Motion agreed to)

Justice and Human RightsCommittees of the HouseRoutine Proceedings

4:05 p.m.

Conservative

Michael Cooper Conservative St. Albert—Edmonton, AB

Mr. Speaker, I will be splitting my time with the hon. member for Wellington—Halton Hills.

For the past six weeks, we have seen a government that is in total chaos, unable to govern and riddled with resignations to cover up corruption at the highest levels of government, corruption that goes right to the top, right to the Prime Minister himself.

It is very clear, based upon the chronological, detailed and compelling testimony of the former attorney general, the hon. member for Vancouver Granville, when she appeared before the justice committee that there was a concerted and coordinated campaign directed by the Prime Minister to put pressure on the former attorney general to interfere in the prosecution of SNC-Lavalin.

It is very clear that the conduct of the Prime Minister and his top officials is completely in appropriate, but it might be worse: It might indeed have crossed the line of criminality.

Section 139 of the Criminal Code makes it an offence to, in any way, seek to alter the course of justice. That appears to be precisely what the Prime Minister sought to do—namely, to alter the course of justice with respect to the prosecution of SNC-Lavalin to get a special deal for the Prime Minister's friends.

Do members know what to call that? We can call it obstruction of justice, because that is exactly the conduct that the Prime Minister engaged in, the type of conduct that he directed from top officials within the PMO.

We have seen a Prime Minister who has repeatedly failed to be straight with Canadians as these allegations came to light, a Prime Minister who has repeatedly changed his story, a Prime Minister who, by way of an admission of guilt, has pathetically resorted to trying to change the channel by saying it was all about jobs, all about saving jobs.

What a joke. What a farce to say that it was all about saving jobs. We know that is simply not true, and the Prime Minister knows it is not true.

Why? It is because SNC-Lavalin was required to stay in Montreal for seven years, pursuant to a $1.5-billion loan agreement with the Caisse de dépôt. It could not move anywhere. It had negotiated a 20-year lease for its headquarters and had just finished multi-million-dollar renovations.

It gets worse, because two days before the Prime Minister directed the Clerk of the Privy Council to threaten the former attorney general in that fateful December 19 meeting not once, not twice, but on three occasions, the CEO of SNC-Lavalin was quoted in the very secret newspaper called the Toronto Star as saying that SNC-Lavalin was here to stay. For the Prime Minister to put forward that argument is simply just not the truth. Frankly, it raises new questions about whether the Prime Minister was trying to mislead the former attorney general as a way to put pressure on her. It provides evidence that there may not only have been obstruction of justice but that obstruction of justice by the Prime Minister had been taken to a whole new level.

In addition to being simply not the facts, it is also further evidence that the Prime Minister acted unlawfully and that his top officials acted unlawfully, because the legislation expressly precludes the consideration of jobs as a factor in whether to enter into a deferred prosecution agreement. What is more is that it may not only have contravened the Criminal Code in terms of the Criminal Code provisions that expressly preclude that consideration, but may also have contravened Canada's obligations pursuant to the OECD anti-bribery convention.

That is why officials from the OECD have said that they have sounded the alarm in terms of what the Prime Minister has done and what his officials have done, and are monitoring the situation quite closely. Therefore, not only did the Prime Minister potentially contravene the Criminal Code, but he may very well have contravened Canada's international obligations as well, and he has certainly done much to undermine Canada's reputation when we are talking about widespread evidence of political interference from the very top, from the Prime Minister, in a bribery corruption case.

The Prime Minister has said the former attorney general has had an opportunity to have her say. She came before the justice committee. The Prime Minister says that this is enough. However, the fact is that the former attorney general does not seem to believe that it is enough, because she has been able to speak about some of the events but is not able to speak about others because the Prime Minister is silencing her.

The Prime Minister is silencing her because he has refused to waive solicitor-client privilege and cabinet confidentiality for the period after she was fired as the Attorney General and was serving in cabinet as Minister of Veterans Affairs. In that regard, in a letter that the former attorney general wrote to the chair of the justice committee just before she testified, she stated:

I also draw to the Committee's attention that while Order in Council number 2019-0105, which I saw for the first time last evening, is a step in the right direction, it falls short of what is required.

When she was asked at the justice committee by the member for Milton whether or not she could tell why she resigned as attorney general and from cabinet, she said that she could not.

It is time for the Prime Minister to stop the cover-up. It is time for the Prime Minister to do the right thing and let the former attorney general speak, not just about things that the Prime Minister wants her to speak about but to speak to the full truth, the full version of events. It is time to end the cover-up. It is time to let her speak.

Justice and Human RightsCommittees of the HouseRoutine Proceedings

4:15 p.m.

Winnipeg North Manitoba

Liberal

Kevin Lamoureux LiberalParliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons

Madam Speaker, I listened to the member throughout his 10-minute commentary and I am not quite sure if he has exactly addressed the report, which is really a one-liner report on a public prosecutor recommendation, from what I understand, to the committee. The Conservative Party wants to debate that particular report when we could be debating indigenous legislation that has been waited for for generations.

Could the member concisely indicate to the House exactly what is in the report, as opposed to what he was talking about?

Justice and Human RightsCommittees of the HouseRoutine Proceedings

4:15 p.m.

Conservative

Michael Cooper Conservative St. Albert—Edmonton, AB

Madam Speaker, what is in the report relates directly to what I am speaking about.

What is more, what is important is that the process continue to move forward, including hearing from the director of public prosecutions, unlike what the Liberals attempted to do in a shameful display last week. Instead of voting and debating at an emergency meeting about how the process could move forward, Liberals shut the committee down and ran out the back door, afraid to face the cameras.

Justice and Human RightsCommittees of the HouseRoutine Proceedings

4:15 p.m.

NDP

Charlie Angus NDP Timmins—James Bay, ON

Madam Speaker, I think it is really important to talk about the independence of the role of the director of public prosecutions, because this is what brings us to the heart of this scandal. Elder Marques and Mathieu Bouchard attempted to go around the former attorney general to begin those conversations, and the former attorney general was very clear that this would represent illegal interference. The Clerk of the Privy Council was talking about starting a conversation with the director of public prosecutions. This is a complete undermining of the notion of the rule of law, and that is what the former attorney general spoke to.

We now see that the government is refusing to let her speak, to come back and rebut the less than credible testimony of Gerry Butts. However, it is now bringing in a former Liberal from the ad scam days, who is doing political fundraisers for the Liberal Party, to oversee whether it is okay for the Liberals to interfere with the work of the director of public prosecutions.

I would put it to my hon. colleague that what got the current Prime Minister into trouble in the first place was this culture of who one knows in the PMO. They said that they were not interested in legalities. They obviously were not interested in legalities. Now they are not interested in credibility, because how is it possible that someone who is now stumping for the Liberals and raising money for them can be put in a position to pretend to be an independent reviewer of potential interference in the role of the director of public prosecutions in the bribery scandal of SNC-Lavalin?

Justice and Human RightsCommittees of the HouseRoutine Proceedings

4:15 p.m.

Conservative

Michael Cooper Conservative St. Albert—Edmonton, AB

Madam Speaker, what we have is a case of Liberals investigating Liberals. A former Liberal cabinet minister who was tied to ad scam, who sat in cabinet with, among others, the Minister of Public Safety, is somehow going to come in and investigate. It falls far short of anything credible, and I believe it is further evidence of a continuation of a cover-up on the part of the Prime Minister.

With respect to the first point the hon. member made about the independence of the director of public prosecutions, under the legislation, it is within her jurisdiction to make a determination about whether to negotiate a deferred prosecution agreement. The fact that the Prime Minister sought to do an end run around the director of public prosecutions by continually putting pressure on the former attorney general is clear evidence of the Prime Minister's total lack of respect for and understanding of her independent prosecutorial discretion.

Justice and Human RightsCommittees of the HouseRoutine Proceedings

4:20 p.m.

Conservative

Michael Chong Conservative Wellington—Halton Hills, ON

Madam Speaker, the events of the last six weeks have demonstrated that the justice committee has been unable or unwilling to deal with a constitutional crisis. Let me first explain why this is a constitutional crisis.

In this country, our Constitution is both written and unwritten. The written Constitution is found in many constitution acts, such as the Constitution Act of 1867, which is the founding document of our Confederation. It is found in the Constitution Act of 1982, which contains the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. However, arguably, the bigger part of our Constitution is the unwritten part. The unwritten part of our Constitution regulates the Crown prerogative. It regulates the accountability of the executive branch of government, which is the Prime Minister's Office and his cabinet, to the legislative branch of government. It regulates the division of powers between the executive, legislative and judicial branches of the Canadian state.

One important part of this unwritten constitutional doctrine is the Shawcross principle. In fact, it is so important that all attorneys general in Canada at the federal and provincial levels have adopted it as constitutional law, as a constitutional convention. The Shawcross doctrine, in essence, says that the attorney general, as the senior law officer of the Crown, is not to be put under pressure by the Prime Minister or any other minister in the cabinet with respect to a criminal proceeding.

It is an important principle to protect the independence of our judicial system to ensure that no prime minister and no premier can interfere with who gets criminally prosecuted and who does not, who gets criminally convicted and who does not, and who gets sent to jail and who does not. These are foundational constitutional principles, not just in Canada but in all western democracies.

What happened here that is such a crisis? Quite simply, the Prime Minister, last September, told his attorney general, as the top Crown prosecutor in the country, that he wanted to see the criminal trial of SNC-Lavalin stopped. He made that clear to her in his discussion last September. The attorney general clearly indicated to him during that conversation that she had made up her mind and that the director of public prosecutions was going to take this matter to trial.

Over the course of the fall, the Prime Minister and his staff and other ministers put unrelenting, sustained and inappropriate pressure on the attorney general to stop this matter from proceeding to trial. In doing so, they violated the constitutional law of this country, the unwritten constitutional conventions that govern the division of powers between the PMO and the judicial branch of government. If they had not violated the Shawcross doctrine, this unwritten convention, last September, they had clearly violated it by the time Christmas came around.

To add to all of this, the Prime Minister fired the attorney general. Oh yes, that is not what the government will say. The government will say that she was shifted into a new portfolio, Veterans Affairs, but the reality is that the former attorney general was shuffled out of her portfolio and a new Attorney General appointed who seemed much more open to halting the criminal trial of SNC-Lavalin and giving it a deferred prosecution agreement. That is why this is a constitutional crisis. The unwritten convention, the constitutional law of this country, that the attorney general is independent in matters criminal has been broken.

The branch of our system of the Canadian state that can hold the executive branch accountable on a non-statutory, non-criminal breach of our unwritten constitutional conventions is the legislative branch of our government, the House of Commons and its committees. However, that is not what is happening here in this legislature. It is not what is happening here in its committees.

The House of Commons, its committees and its parliamentary parties, recognized under the Parliament of Canada Act, can vote to censor the Prime Minister. They can vote to hold the Prime Minister or the government in contempt of Parliament. They can remove the Prime Minister as head of the Liberal parliamentary party and replace him with another leader. That is how this matter needs to be resolved. It is this legislature and its committees that need to hold the executive branch of government accountable for this serious constitutional breach of the independence of our judicial system.

However, it is clear that the justice committee, being under the control of the Prime Minister and the Prime Minister's Office, has been unwilling or unable to hold the executive branch of government accountable, in part because members of committees are all appointed and essentially sit at the pleasure of the party leader. In the case of the justice committee, the majority of members are appointed by the Prime Minister through his designates.

That is the problem here, and that is why the House needs to order the justice committee to do its work. That is why I am going to move an amendment to the motion on the floor right now, which is seconded by the member for Calgary Shepard. I move:

That the motion be amended by deleting all the words after the word “That” and substituting the following:

the 14th Report of the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights, presented on Wednesday, June 7, 2017, be not now concurred in, but that it be recommitted to the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights with instruction to amend the same so as to underscore its ongoing support for the appointment of Kathleen Roussel to the position of Director of Public Prosecutions and to recommend that she appear before the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights to discuss matters relating to her mandate.

I move this amendment because the justice committee is clearly not doing its work in holding the executive branch of government accountable. It needs to do its work, and an order of the House would ensure that it does do its work.

Justice and Human RightsCommittees of the HouseRoutine Proceedings

4:25 p.m.

Winnipeg North Manitoba

Liberal

Kevin Lamoureux LiberalParliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons

Madam Speaker, I find it somewhat sad that the opposition party has chosen today to once again attempt to conduct a filibuster.

Today we were supposed to debate Bill C-92. That would affect hundreds of indigenous children in my own riding. The minister has introduced the bill. It has long been waited for. The Conservatives are using a tool that is often used for a filibuster, and the member across the way knows that full well.

Does the member opposite not recognize the injustice indigenous people have had to incur for many years? We finally have legislation that would have a positive impact on children on the same day the Conservative Party has chosen to take such action. They have already had an emergency debate. There are all sorts of other opportunities to have that debate. Why put indigenous issues on the back burner?

Justice and Human RightsCommittees of the HouseRoutine Proceedings

4:30 p.m.

Conservative

Michael Chong Conservative Wellington—Halton Hills, ON

Madam Speaker, with respect to the member opposite, nothing is more important in front of the House today than the matter concerning the constitutional crisis in front of us. In the long run, nothing matters more than the principles that govern our people. Nothing matters more than the Constitution and the principles in that Constitution. If we fail to uphold these principles, we will be passing along to our children and grandchildren a much weakened constitutional order. Nothing will be worse for the indigenous people of this country, for all Canadians, than to pass along institutions that have been weakened because of a failure to follow unwritten constitutional conventions.

Unwritten constitutional conventions can change, and they can change through precedent. As a House, if we are not seized with the matter at hand that concerns the Constitution, the division of powers and upholding the rule of law, we will weaken this constitutional order, setting a new precedent that will allow future prime ministers and premiers to interfere with criminal prosecutions, and that will mean much worse outcomes for indigenous people across this country.

Justice and Human RightsCommittees of the HouseRoutine Proceedings

4:30 p.m.

NDP

Charlie Angus NDP Timmins—James Bay, ON

Madam Speaker, I listen with great respect and interest to my hon. colleague. I am concerned, however, with his motion about inviting the director of public prosecutions to committee. To me, one of the things that has been very disturbing about the SNC-Lavalin case is the attempt to politically interfere with the independence of the director of public prosecutions, given the fact that there is a very serious case of bribery and corruption that is being watched at the international level. The SNC-Lavalin case is affecting Canada's reputation. It was the allegations raised by the former attorney general that there were numerous attempts to interfere, to go around her, to begin that conversation with the director of public prosecutions that I am worried may actually undermine the case.

I want to know how we are going to be reassured, if the Conservatives try to bring her to committee, that this is not undermining her work, putting her into a political spotlight where she should not be as an independent prosecutor, and is not going to affect the outcome of that case by any attempts to make it seem we are politicizing the role of the independent public prosecutor.

Justice and Human RightsCommittees of the HouseRoutine Proceedings

4:30 p.m.

Conservative

Michael Chong Conservative Wellington—Halton Hills, ON

Madam Speaker, it is possible for the committee to hear and to call for the director of public prosecutions to appear in front of the committee. It is possible for the committee to respect the sub judice convention, another unwritten convention of our Constitution, and ask her questions that are general in nature as it relates to the division of powers between the judicial system and the executive branch of government.

Members on the committee can be expected to uphold those conventions and I expect the chair of that committee will ensure that those unwritten conventions, the sub judice convention in particular, will be upheld and respected.

Justice and Human RightsCommittees of the HouseRoutine Proceedings

4:30 p.m.

NDP

The Assistant Deputy Speaker NDP Carol Hughes

I wish to inform the House that because of the ministerial statement, Government Orders will be extended by 43 minutes.

It is my duty pursuant to Standing Order 38 to inform the House that the questions to be raised tonight at the time of adjournment are as follows: the hon. member for Vancouver East, Canada Revenue Agency; the hon. member for Calgary Shepard, Finance; the hon. member for Saanich—Gulf Islands, The Environment.

Resuming debate, the hon. Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Justice.

Justice and Human RightsCommittees of the HouseRoutine Proceedings

4:30 p.m.

Arif Virani Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada and to the Minister of Democratic Institutions, Lib.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to participate in this discussion. I will be frank in echoing the comments that were made by the parliamentary secretary to the government House leader. In the context of a debate we have had, which is an important debate and discussion, we have had fruitful testimony, justice committee hearings and an Ethics Commission investigator.

However, what has been questioned at times has been our government's commitment to indigenous reconciliation throughout all of these past four or five weeks. This afternoon we are meant to be debating Bill C-92, which is legislation that is defining in its content. It seeks to do something that I think all parliamentarians should seek to support and expedite in all candour.

Bill C-92 seeks to reverse the situation we have today. Any member of the Assembly of First Nations, the ITK or the Métis Nation could tell us that we now have a situation today where we have more children in child welfare custody proceedings than at the height of the residential school system. That is a fact. Bill C-92 is meant to address that by ensuring we are not taking indigenous kids from indigenous environments and putting them into non-indigenous environments, removing them from their families, communities, clans, reserves and their people. That is what we are meant to be debating right now, but instead we are debating the current motion. Therefore, I will debate it, because the opposition has chosen to do just that.

What we are debating is a justice committee report, which was tabled, if I am correct, in June of last year, with respect to the appointment of Kathleen Roussel as the director of public prosecutions. The NDP member who represents the community of Attawapiskat rightfully outlined that this role, this body and this title were extremely important—

Justice and Human RightsCommittees of the HouseRoutine Proceedings

4:35 p.m.

Conservative

Michael Chong Conservative Wellington—Halton Hills, ON

Madam Speaker, I rise on a point of order. I would point out for the member opposite that we are not on the original motion as moved by my colleague from Alberta, but rather on the amendment, which would, if adopted, become an order of the House ordering the justice committee to a particular course of action.

Justice and Human RightsCommittees of the HouseRoutine Proceedings

4:35 p.m.

NDP

The Assistant Deputy Speaker NDP Carol Hughes

I thank the member for Wellington—Halton Hills. As he well knows, there is a lot of flexibility when debate is happening on specific bills. I am sure the hon. parliamentary secretary will take note of the amendment. As the hon. member knows, it is part of the legislation that is currently being debated right now.

The hon. parliamentary secretary.