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Results: 1 - 15 of 319
View Brenda Shanahan Profile
Lib. (QC)
Thank you, Chair.
I would like to give notice of a motion at this time.
It reads, “That, in relation to the motion passed on Wednesday, July 22, 2020 to ensure the privacy and security of this personal information of Canadians, the committee adopt the following procedures for the handling of these documents:
“That the documents not be emailed to Members, staff or anyone else;
“That for the consideration of the documents during in-camera meetings, numbered, paper copies be provided to committee members by the Clerk at the start of any meeting at which they will be considered, and that they be returned to the clerk at the end of the meeting;
“That no staff and no mobile or electronic devices be allowed for the duration of the in camera meeting;
“That the documents be held in the Clerk’s office, and that outside of in-camera committee meetings, Members may only view the documents in the Clerk’s office and that no mobile or electronic devices may be in the room when the documents are being reviewed.”
We have the same motion in French.
View Brenda Shanahan Profile
Lib. (QC)
Madam Chair, I would like to move the motion for which I gave notice earlier.
It reads, “ That, in relation to the motion passed on Wednesday, July 22, 2020, to ensure the privacy and security of this personal information of Canadians, the committee adopt the following procedures for the handling of these documents:
“That the documents not be emailed to Members, staff or anyone else;
“That for the consideration of the documents during in-camera meetings, numbered, paper copies be provided to committee members by the Clerk at the start of any meeting at which they will be considered, and that they be returned to the Clerk at the end of the meeting;
“That no staff and no mobile or electronic devices be allowed for the duration of the in camera meeting;
“That the documents be held in the Clerk's office, and that outside of in-camera committee meetings, Members may only view the documents in the Clerk's office and that no mobile or electronic devices may be in the room when the documents are being reviewed.”
View Michael Barrett Profile
CPC (ON)
Thanks, Madam Chair.
When we dealt with the motion that was passed yesterday, it was the will of the committee that the review of the documents requested would be done in camera. I find it ironic that while the integrity of some members of the cabinet has been called into question in recent days, to my knowledge the integrity of the members of this committee has not. Unless it is the suggestion of government members of the committee that all matters dealt with in camera must be done in such a fashion, which I think is unnecessary and dramatic, I'll be voting against the motion.
Thank you.
View Greg Fergus Profile
Lib. (QC)
Thank you.
Madam Chair, first I'd like to thank the committee for its collective wisdom in agreeing to keep the matters in camera. Specifically, I'd like to thank the members from the NDP for supporting that motion. As I mentioned yesterday, I really did feel—and I still do feel—that we've opened the door to a practice that I believe, sooner than any of us think, will be regrettable. We might want to close that barn door later.
That said, the committee chose to adopt this motion. I salute the committee, in particular the NDP, for agreeing to try to limit the scope of the information that is going to be collected from private individuals. I think, Madam Chair, that this is giving us an opportunity.
Mr. Barrett raises a fair point. I'd like to reassure him that no one is calling into question the rectitude of members to respect the in camera process. What Madam Shanahan has actually raised is, frankly, nothing more than spelling out the practice. It's making explicit what usually has been implicit in the practices of the House, in terms of dealing with in camera material.
This way, you're really ensuring that this kind of information doesn't, through whatever means, get distributed beyond the members around this table, and it doesn't impede us in any way, because it allows us to continue to do the work. It allows us to examine the material that has been requested. It allows us to make a report, and to make that report known. You can accuse me of many things, but I think one thing you can't accuse me of is not being consistent. I remain consistent on this point. This is now politicians investigating politicians, and I think this could lead to some real trouble down the line.
I'd be happy to engage with any members who would at least give this a fair listen, fair consideration, to see if this is something that we can agree to. We should take the time that is necessary for people to have the opportunity to consider this and to consider what we're trying to do.
Madam Chair, if someone wanted to consider this and set forward a time by which we could come back and make a decision on this shortly, I'd be open to that. We would need to make sure that before this information comes in and gets distributed around.... We really should think about what we want to do here and try to preserve the integrity of our committee. As I said, it could start off with this particular situation, but this could easily—
This can easily get out of hand, Madam Chair, and we could start investigating a lot of things, such as the private lives of members or their families. That is not desirable.
If the committee decides that this is the route it wants to take, we will do so, but we can at least set up some guidelines, some safeguards, so that we stay on the rails. It needs to be explicitly stated that we must work in camera. I think that would be a good thing. No one would talk about it and all privileges would be maintained. The precedent that we are going to set must be crystal clear for the future work of various committees.
Thank you, Madam Chair.
View Damien Kurek Profile
CPC (AB)
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. I will keep my comments very brief.
The motion is certainly quite extraordinary. To hardly allow a calculator into the room is quite something when we are dealing with the issues that I believe Canadians have tasked Canada's Parliament and its political leaders to deal with. I have great concern that these limitations would be put on proceedings of this committee or would so specifically dictate what a specific outcome should be with respect to a committee's direction. It's very limiting. It puts a stranglehold on how this committee would be able to proceed within the context of dealing with a motion that was passed just the other day.
Mr. Fergus has referred to trying to preserve the integrity of this committee, and I agree, but I think that it's incumbent upon all members to ensure that the integrity of this committee is preserved and that there is a trust associated with that to do what's right. Ultimately it's Canada's Parliament that has to hold its government to account. Suffice it to say that I won't be supporting the motion, but I would say very clearly that in relation to the data, the information, that's been asked for, within the full scope of the motion that was adopted yesterday, it should be treated with respect, just as we should treat all aspects of the work we do in this committee with the utmost respect and care for the offices that we hold.
View Matthew Green Profile
NDP (ON)
Thank you.
Through you, Madam Chair, to the clerk if I'm able to ask, what is the precedent for this? It strikes me as a precaution that would be saved for a national security interest. I think of my honourable colleague Don Davies, who, when he was appointed, shared with me the level of security they have around those meetings.
Is there a precedent, in anybody's recent history, from the clerk's perspective, that you would lock down the ethics committee in that type of way? Has that happened here before?
View Matthew Green Profile
NDP (ON)
I'll save the agony of even going down that road and just suggest to you at this point that without having been able to confer with my colleague to be able to bind him in one way or another in terms of future meetings, I'm not comfortable moving forward with this motion and would suggest that there be a tabling of this motion until such time as we have the opportunity to confer, given that it was put here with relatively short notice, although we are in committee business.
I'll just share with the mover of the motion that I'm not comfortable at this point without conferring on where I'm going to go on this, so it would probably be in their best interest to table it.
View Brenda Shanahan Profile
Lib. (QC)
The purpose of this motion is, indeed, to give us the parameters within which to deal with the request that was adopted yesterday for the documents. In fact, it is in the spirit of remarks that were made by our regular permanent member from the NDP when we adopted the Standing Orders, particularly the addition to the standing order that stipulated that any motion to go in camera should be debatable and amendable and that the committee may only meet in camera for the following purposes:
(a) to discuss administrative matters of the committee and witness selection (b) examine draft reports (c) briefings concerning national security and; (d) to discuss matters involving an individual's private information; and furthermore, minutes of in camera meetings should reflect on the results of all votes taken by the committee with the exception of votes regarding the consideration of draft report; including how each member voted when a recorded vote is requested.
I have here some of Mr. Angus's remarks from that meeting of February 19, 2020, wherein he says:
I think the intention of my colleague is fair. I think we have to trust each other that we're not going to abuse that. I'm fair with the language; I think there's an understanding here. We do not want to damage someone who has not done anything wrong but there may be information, so I think it's just fair. I'm willing to accept it. I don't think we can anticipate all the ways in which it will be used, and the language may get harder and harder, so I would agree with that. Also, I certainly think the amendment...is excellent.
I think it's in that spirit, and I certainly have seen with other committees that I participate in that the actual consultation on documents and so on is done in that way. Perhaps with the chair's permission, the clerk could speak to us about some of the ways in which the privacy of sensitive documents is safeguarded. I think that's what the motion is stipulating, so that it's very clear. Things have happened in the past, and that's part of the reason I am looking forward to having a briefing by the law clerk on what our duty of care is here, what we can and can't do. I don't think any member here wants to be treating sensitive information in a way that is harmful.
I wonder if my colleague would agree that our request for the documents—and I will ask the clerk for the email to see what the distribution looks like—should not go out if this is not resolved by the time the documents have been received by the clerk. I think we need to have clarity on how to handle these documents. Is this something that my colleague from the NDP party would agree to?
I'm sorry if I mixed up Green and NDP. I tend to do that with your name. Does that happen to you, Mr. Green, that we say you are from the Green Party?
View Dane Lloyd Profile
CPC (AB)
This is a very interesting topic. I don't wish to preclude any members from bringing this matter up again, but given that my colleague from the NDP isn't comfortable with the wording of this motion, as he has stated, I would move that we adjourn debate on this motion.
View Rachael Harder Profile
CPC (AB)
I call the meeting back to order.
A motion to adjourn the debate has been moved by Mr. Lloyd, so I will now move to a vote on that motion.
Would you like that recorded, Mr. Lloyd?Technical difficulty—Editor]
(Motion negatived [See Minutes of Proceedings])
The Chair: Since we will continue to debate the motion in front of us here today as presented by Madam Shanahan, I will continue down the speakers list. The speakers list is as follows: Mr. Gerretsen, Mr. Scarpaleggia, Mr. Fergus, Mr. Barrett, and Mr. Green.
Mr. Gerretsen, the floor is yours.
View Rachael Harder Profile
CPC (AB)
Before giving the floor [Technical difficulty—Editor] who held the floor just before we suspended, Mr. Fortin, I will return to you. My apologies; I misunderstood. You did raise a point of order and you were asking for a ruling, so I will deliver that.
Your point of order was with regard to the motion that had been put forward by Madame Shanahan, and I believe the point you raised was that you felt this was similar and had already been covered within the motion that was passed yesterday in our discussions having to do with the meetings being in camera when the documents are being discussed. That was an amendment made and accepted yesterday.
Therefore, you feel that that amendment and this motion before us today are essentially the same. Am I understanding you correctly?
Results: 1 - 15 of 319 | Page: 1 of 22

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