44th Parl. 1st Sess.
December 4, 2023
- 04:05:28 p.m.
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Good evening, everybody. It's Anita's birthday, so we'll be celebrating that. There's cake at the back.
I'd like to call this meeting to order. Welcome to meeting number 89 of the House of Commons Standing Committee on the Status of Women.
Today's meeting is taking place in a hybrid format, pursuant to the Standing Orders. Everybody should understand, with the Zoom application, to just please put up your hand.
If I'm totally ignoring you—Emmanuella knows what this is like—just let me know. Say, “Karen, I need to hear from you.” For those in the room, just put up your hand and we'll make sure that we take down a list.
Interpretation, of course, is available. We've all used that before.
Today we have different people in the room, so for those who are on Zoom, it looks a bit different. We have Chelsea Moore here, and Julia Nicol. We also have some legislative clerks who are going to be helping us with this legislation.
We also have a new clerk, so he's going to be getting used to how it is to work with me.
Pursuant to the order of reference of Wednesday, November 1, 2023, the committee will commence consideration of Bill S-205, an act to amend the Criminal Code and to make consequential amendments to another act regarding interim release and domestic violence recognizance orders.
When ready to start, we're going to go clause by clause. There have been a lot of different clause-by-clauses that we have done in the past in other committees, but this one is a little different. A lot of times we don't look at the justice bills.
I'm going to remind everybody that we're going to take it slowly. I think the most important thing is that we get this right. At the end of the day, this is all about the victims and ensuring that we get this right.
I would like to provide members of the committee with some instructions and a few comments on how the committee will proceed with clause-by-clause consideration of this bill.
As members already know, this is an examination of all clauses in the order in which they appear in the bill. I will call each clause successively and each clause is subject to debate and a vote. If there are amendments to the clause in question, I will recognize the member proposing it, who may explain it. The amendment will then be open for debate. When no further members wish to intervene, the amendment will be voted on.
Amendments will be considered in the order in which they appear in the package or in the bill. Members should note that amendments must be submitted in writing to the clerk of the committee. As Stephanie noted, we need them in both official languages so that we can circulate them around to everyone.
The Chair will move slowly to allow all members to follow the proceedings properly.
Amendments have been given a number. Everybody has the amendment. At the top corner, for instance, you will see a G-1, and that stands for Government-1. In your list and in the package, on the right-hand side you will see the number that we're referring to.
The amendment will then be open for debate. During debate on the amendment, members are permitted to move subamendments. These subamendments must be submitted in writing. They do not require the approval of the mover of the amendment. Only one subamendment may be considered at a time, and that subamendment cannot be amended. When a subamendment is moved to an amendment, it is voted on first. Then another subamendment may be moved, or the committee may consider the main amendment and vote on it.
Once every clause has been voted on, the committee will vote on the title and the bill itself. Finally, the committee will have to order the chair to report the bill to the House. The report contains only the text of any adopted amendments as well as an indication of any deleted clauses.
Everybody has all of their information. You should have the bill, plus everybody should have the bill in PDF format. You'll see the line numbers on that.
I just want to make sure that everybody has a PDF format of the bill.
Some hon. members: Agreed.
(On clause 1)
The Chair: Super-duper. We're good to go. Let's get rolling here.
The chair calls clause 1 and we have amendment G-1.
Ms. Sonia, would you like to move it?
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- 04:09:37 p.m.
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Yes, Madam Chair. It's that Bill S-205, in clause 1, be amended by replacing lines 4 to 17 on page 1 with the following:
1(1) Paragraph 515(6)(b.1) of the Criminal Code is replaced by
and by replacing line 1 on page 2 with the following:
(2) The Act is amended by adding the following
If you want me to give the explanation, it's to remove measures that would require the court to ask whether the victim has been consulted about their safety and security needs prior to making an order for bail. That's why we are moving that.
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- 04:35:18 p.m.
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Thank you, Madam Chair.
Amendment G‑2 is fairly straightforward.
It is that Bill S‑205, in clause 1, be amended by replacing, in the French version, line 23 on page 1 with the following:
tenaire intime, s'il a été auparavant condamné
It simply involves changing the words “déclaré coupable” to “condamné”. The amendment is purely practical.
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- 04:37:22 p.m.
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Yes, Madam Chair.
It is that Bill S-205, in clause 2, be amended by (a) replacing lines 9 to 12 on page 2 with the following:
810.03(1) Any person who fears on reasonable grounds that another person will commit an offence that will cause personal injury to the intimate partner or a child of the other person, or to a child of the other person's intimate partner, may lay an information
(b) replacing lines 32 to 34 on page 2 with:
(5) The provincial court judge may commit the defen-
(c) replacing line 1 on page 3 with:
(6) The provincial court judge may add any reasonable
(d) replacing lines 4 and 5 on page 3 with:
or to secure the safety and security of the intimate partner or a child of the defendant, or a child of the defendant's intimate partner, including condi-
(e) replacing line 20 on page 3 with—
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- 05:20:53 p.m.
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This is a technical coordinating amendment to ensure that Bill S-205 is in line with another bill that Parliament is studying, Bill C-21, should both bills be passed.
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- 05:24:38 p.m.
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Just quickly, Madam Chair, I think this is simply technical, and I don't know about the aspect of clause 2, but essentially when we are looking at ensuring the two bills' language, I don't see that amendment G-14 takes away from Bill S-205. If I understand it correctly, it just aligns the two bills, and it doesn't take away or add. I thought this was a simple amendment.
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- 05:27:15 p.m.
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Although that is the case, it needs to be legally translated. It cannot just be done by brilliant people like you. It has to be done as an official translation for legality reasons. It has to go through that.
I know we have some amazing people in here. We could translate that, but there are certain words that are very important, especially in a court of law.
Seeing no other questions or comments, I will just remind everybody that on Thursday we have the estimates with Minister Ien. We'll be rescheduling a portion for this meeting as well, so that we can get back to Bill S-205. We'll get a new schedule out to you, because we need to get back to this as well.
Seeing no other questions or comments, today's meeting is adjourned.
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