PROC Committee Meeting
Notices of Meeting include information about the subject matter to be examined by the committee and date, time and place of the meeting, as well as a list of any witnesses scheduled to appear. The Evidence is the edited and revised transcript of what is said before a committee. The Minutes of Proceedings are the official record of the business conducted by the committee at a sitting.
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CANADA
Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs
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EVIDENCE
Thursday, November 9, 2006
[Recorded by Electronic Apparatus]
[English]
Order, please.
We are dealing with a letter in response to a letter from Mr. Kingsley, dated October 31. It's a draft letter presented to the committee. It's been requested that the last sentence of the fifth paragraph be deleted. All in favour?
Some hon. members: Agreed.
The Chair: That is unanimous.
Now, with that change, it's moved that the letter be sent to Mr. Kingsley without any other changes.
All in favour?
Oh, you want a recorded vote. Would it be acceptable to record that you are opposed?
Mr. David Christopherson: No, I'd like a recorded vote.
I have a point of order before we go back in camera.
Mr. Chairman, as Mr. Christopherson has asked that the vote be recorded, I want it recorded that Mr. Christopherson was not here when any of the discussions regarding this letter took place and that he had, as far as I can tell, no knowledge of this matter prior to arriving in this room less than half an hour ago.
I'm not going to get into a debate on this issue. I will take brief comments on it.
Mr. Christopherson is first, and then M. Guimond.
Thank you, Chair.
Members who have been around a while will know and can identify that I very carefully did not go out of my way to speak while we were on the record.
Since you've chosen to open up that front, let me just say that the reason I opposed is not lack of understanding on the depth of the issue. I'm merely looking at what's in front of us to deal with. I'm concerned that we're just saying no to the disabled community, and that the impression is that they're being given the back of the hand by this Parliament when the Chief Electoral Officer is being seen as trying to reach out.
The committee may not have liked the procedure or what was done, but to just dismiss it out of hand, to me, is wrong. I would have liked to see a little more attention paid to this opportunity that's being given to the disabled community, given how hard they've been fighting for years and years just to be given equal access to the full electoral system.
I did ask for brief comments on it. I wasn't even going to allow it. It sounds to me more like debate, and I'm going to shut this down. We're moving on. The vote has been carried.
I would like permission from the committee now to go back in camera so that we can move on with the business of the day.
Are there any objections? Seeing none, I'm going to suspend the meeting and we'll go back in camera.
[Proceedings continue in camera]