SPER Committee Meeting
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37th PARLIAMENT, 2nd SESSION
Subcommittee on the Status of Persons with Disabilities of the Standing Committee on Human Resources Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities
EVIDENCE
CONTENTS
Tuesday, October 28, 2003
| Á | 1105 |
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Ms. Bibiane Ouellette (Committee Clerk) |
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Ms. Anita Neville (Winnipeg South Centre, Lib.) |
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The Chair (Ms. Carolyn Bennett (St. Paul's, Lib.)) |
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Mr. Bill Farrell (As Individual) |
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The Chair |
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Ms. Bibiane Ouellette |
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The Chair |
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Mr. Reed Elley (Nanaimo—Cowichan, Canadian Alliance) |
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The Chair |
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Ms. Bibiane Ouellette |
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The Chair |
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Ms. Nancy Karetak-Lindell (Nunavut, Lib.) |
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The Chair |
| Á | 1110 |
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Mr. Reed Elley |
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The Chair |
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Mr. Reed Elley |
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Mr. Norman Doyle (St. John's East, PC) |
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Mr. Reed Elley |
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The Chair |
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Ms. Nancy Karetak-Lindell |
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Mr. Reed Elley |
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The Chair |
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Mr. Reed Elley |
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The Chair |
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Mr. Reed Elley |
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Ms. Nancy Karetak-Lindell |
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Mr. Reed Elley |
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Ms. Nancy Karetak-Lindell |
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The Chair |
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Mr. Reed Elley |
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Mr. Norman Doyle |
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The Chair |
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Ms. Nancy Karetak-Lindell |
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Ms. Anita Neville |
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The Chair |
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Mr. Reed Elley |
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The Chair |
CANADA
Subcommittee on the Status of Persons with Disabilities of the Standing Committee on Human Resources Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities |
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EVIDENCE
Tuesday, October 28, 2003
[Recorded by Electronic Apparatus]
Á 
(1105)
[English]
Ms. Bibiane Ouellette (Committee Clerk): Honourable members of the subcommittee, I see a quorum. We can now proceed to the election of the chair.
[Translation]
Are there any nominations?
[English]
Are there any nominations?
Ms. Anita Neville (Winnipeg South Centre, Lib.): I move that Carolyn Bennett be elected chair of the committee.
(Motion agreed to)
The Chair (Ms. Carolyn Bennett (St. Paul's, Lib.)): I don't want to steal anybody's time, because this was just really a striking meeting on people's agendas. I don't think we need a motion.
Mr. Bill Farrell (As Individual): I suggest we write a letter.
The Chair: If the committee concurs, we will write a letter to Irwin Cotler. I don't even know if that committee has been struck yet. If not, we could have our own meeting and invite members of that subcommittee, or last year's members, just so we have people with an international human rights perspective at the meeting. Is that okay?
Hi, Reed. You're stuck with me again. We're just discussing whether we can try to squeeze into next week the joint meeting we talked about with Irwin's subcommittee on international human rights, to talk about the covenant and the proposal to the UN, and bring in the DFAIT officials.
If his committee has not been struck, we'll just have our own meeting and invite members from his committee to come to give us their international perspective. We're worried that it's not being pushed quite as fully as it should be at the mission, and it seems like a good thing.
Because we have a charter, I think we take a bunch of stuff for granted as Canadians. Countries without charters love this international covenant stuff that they can use to push stuff through.
Is that okay?
Ms. Bibiane Ouellette: Is there a date?
The Chair: The main thing is the time next week.
Mr. Reed Elley (Nanaimo—Cowichan, Canadian Alliance): We talked about having this meeting, and it is important. What do we see as the outcome of it? In light of whatever is going to happen after November 7, where do we see it going?
The Chair: If there is consensus at the end of the meeting, we can send a letter of support to Minister Graham on pushing the international human rights agenda for persons with disabilities. I don't think we need to table a report in the House, but certainly this committee has done pretty well before by just sending letters to ministers, whether it's the finance minister, the HR minister, or whatever--if that's okay.
I don't know when we're expecting the response from the government on our subcommittee report, but it should be soon.
Ms. Bibiane Ouellette: Which section of the DFAIT officials would you like?
The Chair: There's a group that deals with disabilities, which we've seen before. Let it send whomever it wants.
The other people we thought were very knowledgeable on this were Diane Richler, from Inclusion International, who has been pushing it; and maybe Joan Westland, who spoke to us on the international stuff before. I don't know if there's anybody from Quebec whose point of view we'd like to hear. But that's my little shopping list.
Ms. Nancy Karetak-Lindell (Nunavut, Lib.): Are you talking about the people for this meeting?
The Chair: Yes. So there would be the officials and a few of the activists on the international.... Diane Richler, who used to be at CACL, is now the executive director of Inclusion International.
Our spies are saying our report has caused a great deal of activity within the department--in trying to figure out where we go in the next piece. I hope our e-consultation has likewise produced some interest and attention in both the Library of Parliament and the House of Commons.
We should probably be better at circulating the kind of attention it has received. Steven Clift, who is the guru of e-democracy, democracy online, wrote an article in the Hill Times two weeks ago. He suggested that what this committee did was the best in the world because we didn't farm it out to a third party; we actually did it ourselves.
So our next interest, in trying to get that capacity within the House and the Library, is sort of exciting. Certainly I've been asked to present at a number of things. Bill Young and I presented at the GTEC conference two weeks ago on what we have learned from it.
It's not much different from what Bill presented here, but when we do these presentations it might be interesting for us to circulate the PowerPoint presentation to the members so you could use bits of it when you're talking. You would actually have that example to use in your speeches or presentations on either disabilities or e-democracy.
I think those of us on the disability committee are now viewed as being in the forefront of the e-democracy file, so you should have all the ammunition you can get to go out and speak about this stuff.
Á (1110)
Mr. Reed Elley: We need to set a time.
The Chair: When is a good time?
Mr. Reed Elley: This is my duty day, unfortunately. It's a stretch.
Mr. Norman Doyle (St. John's East, PC): Me too.
Mr. Reed Elley: Since I'm a regular at this committee, you might want to accommodate me.
The Chair: I think we should.
If it's your duty day, does that mean you're supposed to be in the House?
Ms. Nancy Karetak-Lindell: You can't come out for a committee? We can.
Mr. Reed Elley: I did today, but it was only because I said it would be for 15 minutes.
The Chair: So it wouldn't matter if we were in 112 north or anything. You aren't supposed to be gone.
Mr. Reed Elley: I can find a replacement, but that's not always easy.
The Chair: Is Tuesday afternoon any better?
Mr. Reed Elley: I'm on duty the whole day.
Ms. Nancy Karetak-Lindell: You're on for the whole day?
Mr. Reed Elley: We work in this party, you know.
Ms. Nancy Karetak-Lindell: We go twice a week. You guys only go once.
The Chair: What about Thursday at 11 a.m.?
Mr. Reed Elley: I'll be gone. I'm here on Wednesdays and Mondays.
Mr. Norman Doyle: Wednesday is caucus day.
The Chair: What about Wednesday afternoon. Is the kids' subcommittee meeting then?
Ms. Nancy Karetak-Lindell: I'm on the task force for seasonal workers, so we're meeting all the time. What about a week from Wednesday?
Ms. Anita Neville: We're going to lose our quorum.
The Chair: We're fine. We're just fooling around.
Thank you so much, Anita.
Okay. We'll try to have it on Wednesday afternoon.
Mr. Reed Elley: That will be great. I appreciate it.
The Chair: We'll just try to fill out our numbers with the international people, if we can.
Thanks.
The meeting is adjourned.