44th Parl. 1st Sess.
March 2, 2022 02:00PM
- Mar/2/22 4:29:40 p.m.
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I did not hear it, so must apologize for that.
Maybe what I can do is let the member rephrase it.
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- Mar/2/22 4:29:48 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I will get the member a dictionary afterward so he can look up these words himself.
My question for the House leader is this: Why does he think it is that the Conservative Party is so adamant on getting a position of being a chair on this committee? Why is it so important to be a chair on this committee?
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- Mar/2/22 4:30:08 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the impasse seems to be on that very point. My hon. colleague is correct that the impasse is on the Conservatives' insistence on chairing a process when they had taken such a clear side. One of their members called it “Canada Day times a thousand”.
They are yelling across the aisle because I understand they do not want to wait for their questions. Neither do we, and that is why we are not chairing. Perhaps the hon. member will understand that we have given up the chair and that they have taken a strident position of being in favour of the illegal activities and cheerleading those activities and that therefore they would be inappropriate to be the chair. That is why we have moved this reasonable proposal.
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- Mar/2/22 4:30:54 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, today's debate is a very serious one. Canadians want to shed light on the events that took place in February after the government did nothing for three weeks.
This committee will shed light on this matter. This is supposed to be a non-partisan parliamentary committee. What is unfortunate is that the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons came out swinging in his speech, accusing the Conservatives of partisanship, when that could not be farther from the truth. We must conduct a neutral and objective review of the events that took place.
Why is the government taking such a partisan stance on a matter that demands non-partisanship?
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- Mar/2/22 4:31:44 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, there will be a parliamentary committee, and it will be responsible for reviewing the use of the Emergencies Act.
I am certain that the process will be fair. The proposal is so fair and reasonable that we reduced the number of members from the governing party. There are three members from the Liberal Party, three from the Conservative Party, one from the Bloc Québécois, one from the NDP, and one from each group in the Senate.
That is more reasonable that the normal makeup of committees, on which there are more government members. The only question remaining has to do with the role of chair. I do not understand why this position is causing such a big problem, especially when the solution is obvious, namely that the committee should be co-chaired by one member from a party that supported the declaration of a public order emergency and one from a party that was against it.
This is not about pitting the government against the official opposition. I think my colleague across the way and former counterpart is a very reasonable person. I have a lot of respect for him, and I am sure he understands what I am saying.
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- Mar/2/22 4:33:27 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I find this debate really difficult and quite lamentable, because I completely agree there is an urgency here, as the hon. member for Salaberry—Suroît pointed out a moment ago. There is urgency, but again this is the first time such a committee is being formed because it is the first time the Emergencies Act has been used.
It will be a closed-door session and only with security clearance, so I just want to put on the floor now, as I may not get another chance, that the Green Party had one member vote no and one member vote yes. In a normal committee, we would be able to sit in, even though we would not be voting and not participating in other ways. I would like to request that we have security clearance to participate as observers, because this process is so very important.
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- Mar/2/22 4:34:13 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I completely agree with the member on the importance of not only parliamentary oversight, but, of course, an independent inquiry, which will be conducted. As part of the provisions of the act, it must report back within 365 days.
I have heard the reasonable proposition of the member opposite, and I will certainly take that under due consideration and have conversations with the other parties about the possibility of it. I understand her interest and the interest of all members in ensuring that this process is conducted fully, fairly and independently.
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- Mar/2/22 4:34:55 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is important that this work begin as soon as possible. It should have begun on Monday. There were discussions, and three of the recognized parties in the House of Commons reached a consensus, as did the majority of the Senate groups.
What is being proposed is very logical. One of the co‑chairs will represent the members who voted in favour of the Emergencies Act, while the member from the Bloc Québécois will represent the members who voted against it. This ensures balance in the chairship of this committee. The composition of the committee would also be balanced, with three representatives from the government and three from the official opposition.
This consensus seems extremely reasonable to everyone except for one party, which wants to prolong the deliberations for a few weeks.
I have a big question for my colleague, the government House leader. Is it important for this committee to begin its work this week so that we can shed light on the events that led to the invocation of the Emergencies Act?
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- Mar/2/22 4:36:18 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, my colleague across the way is absolutely right. It is important to create the committee as soon as possible. It is discouraging that the Conservative Party continues to block its creation when the committee is receiving a lot of support from the other parties, not just here in the House of Commons, but also in the Senate.
The second point I want to raise is the process in the Senate, the other place. The Senate also needs to start its work, but it is waiting for us to adopt our motion to create the committee. The longer the House of Commons waits, the longer the Senate also has to wait.
It is time to start our work because this is so important. There is a very reasonable proposal on the table, and now it is time to create the committee.
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- Mar/2/22 4:37:24 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, this is a very important piece of legislation. We did not see any legal interpretation when the government invoked the act. We still have not heard that, and we have asked many questions on where the legal interpretation was that it met the threshold.
If we read this act, it clearly states that a member of the official opposition or of the opposition, and we are recognized as being the official opposition, should be chairing this committee. It is normal practice that any committee that oversees and scrutinizes the government is chaired by an official opposition member.
I am just wondering if you had a legal opinion to interpret the act in the way you are interpreting it, because you are saying it should be co-chaired by two members of different parties, not by the official opposition.
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- Mar/2/22 4:38:11 p.m.
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I want to remind the member to ask the questions through the Chair. I cannot answer on behalf of the government, but I will let him answer now.
The hon. government House leader.
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- Mar/2/22 4:38:24 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, here is the thing that I find concerning. We had, for three weeks, the city of Ottawa besieged by an occupation. I had an opportunity to talk with business owners and residents who had their lives ripped apart by what had occurred, yet the question we are being asked again and again is this: “Why can't I get the chair of the committee?” The concern from the Conservatives seems to be an obsession with whether they get the chair and have a member who gets to say they are the chair, when the city of Ottawa went through an absolute nightmare.
I cannot imagine, if I were a resident or an owner of a business in the red zone, hearing the Conservatives spending all their time myopically asking about whether they can get a chair, instead of telling us to look at what happened here and to make sure that it never happens again, given these poor people in Ottawa, the blockades, the businesses that were impacted and the billions of dollars that were lost. How can we make sure that we do not have members of Parliament supporting those kinds of activities and make sure that we do not have these issues in the future?
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- Mar/2/22 4:39:48 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to follow up with a question based on the answer the government House leader provided. I think of the RCMP commissioner, the interim chief of the Ottawa Police Service and, in my home province, the Premier of Manitoba, who three days prior was virtually demanding, asking and begging for Ottawa to take action in relation to our international borders given the importance of trade.
The government House leader talked about the siege in downtown Ottawa. My question for him is this. From his perspective, on the issue of accountability, how important is it for this committee to be put in place and for our focus to be on ensuring we get witnesses to come before the committee to provide comfort to Canadians regarding its justification?
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- Mar/2/22 4:40:44 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I think the question from my hon. colleague is about taking a look at exactly how these measures were used. Let us remember that before the act was invoked, we were in a situation where border crossings were closed, the city of Ottawa was besieged and there did not seem to be an end in sight. The Emergencies Act was put into place, as it was contemplated in 1988, to deal with emergency situations, and we now see a flow of goods and services and a return to normalcy here in the city of Ottawa.
The important work that needs to be done is not about dealing with the debate on who chairs the committee, particularly when we have so much agreement on how that process should take place. Instead, it is about looking to make sure the powers that were used were used judiciously, appropriately and in a limited fashion in terms of both geography and time. I would think that all members would want to get on with that process as quickly as possible, so I am frustrated that, because of the Conservatives' desire to have chairmanship, we continue to have to wait and grind this out. This should have started on Monday. We should not be here today continuing to deal with this.
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- Mar/2/22 4:42:11 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, this is a very serious conversation about how we can move forward to see if the emergency measures act was correctly implemented. I feel sorry for the government House leader. I believe he has short-term amnesia about what actually happened. In his answer, he said that we needed the Emergencies Act because there were blockades across our borders. That is not true. It is a lie. It is an absolute untruth and it did not happen. The blockades were gone—
Some hon. members: Oh, oh.
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- Mar/2/22 4:42:44 p.m.
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Order. The parliamentary secretary to the government House leader is rising on a point of order.
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- Mar/2/22 4:42:48 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we would all know, based on the parliamentary procedures we have in the House, that we cannot call another member in the House a liar. I ask you to ask the member to withdraw that comment.
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- Mar/2/22 4:42:59 p.m.
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I will save us all on this one. I would ask the member to back up, retract the word in question and go forward from there.
The hon. member for Regina—Lewvan.
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- Mar/2/22 4:43:15 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I am sorry I misspoke. I wanted to say that some things have happened that are not relevant to the history of the Emergencies Act. The member said that the Emergencies Act had to be invoked to clear the blockades, but that did not happen. The blockades were removed before the Emergencies Act was used.
I would like to get back to the point of the question. The fact the Liberals keep telling a story that is fictional is something that really affects my constituents in Regina—Lewvan. Did they reach the criteria to invoke the Emergencies Act? That is the question the committee wants to have answered and why—
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- Mar/2/22 4:44:06 p.m.
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The hon. government House leader.
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