Mr. Speaker, I am rising on a point of order at the earliest opportunity I have to raise a concern I have about the “response” tabled to Question No. 461 from my colleague from Peace River—Westlock.
In brief, the question is with respect to a motion adopted by the House on June 19, 2019. It calls on the UN to establish an international independent investigation into the allegation of genocide against Tamils committed in Sri Lanka. The question asks about the government's position on it, diplomatic representations it has made with respect to that issue, as well as the government's intention with respect to raising the genocide investigation specifically.
The response that was tabled to that question makes no mention of any genocide investigation. In fact, it does not address the question at all. It refers broadly to Sri Lanka, but it makes no mention of the substance of the question.
I know that it is practice for the Speaker not to be asked to evaluate the particulars of the quality of the response. However, in this case, given that the alleged response does not in any way acknowledge or respond to the question, I would submit that this makes a total mockery of the expectation in the Standing Orders for the government to table a response.
There have to be some constraints on the response the government presents. After all, if the government were to present a response on an unrelated topic, I would submit that the Speaker would have to note that a violation of the Standing Orders had occurred. I would ask you to examine the response to this question and advise the House on whether the government's words actually constitute a response for the purpose of the Standing Order.