Core 1..164 Hansard (PRISM::Advent3b2 9.00)
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
CANADA House of Commons Debates VOLUME 141 Ï NUMBER 164 Ï 1st SESSION Ï 39th PARLIAMENT OFFICIAL REPORT (HANSARD) Tuesday, June 5, 2007 Speaker: The Honourable Peter Milliken CONTENTS (Table of Contents appears at back of this issue.) Also available on the Parliament of Canada Web Site at the following address: http://www.parl.gc.ca 10123 HOUSE OF COMMONS Tuesday, June 5, 2007 The House met at 10 a.m. This Holodomor-Genocide inflicted a deep and lasting scar on the Ukrainian community throughout the world. Many survivors of the famine and their descendants later immigrated to Canada. This famine was an attempt to crush the longing for freedom and to erase Prayers all aspirations for an independent Ukrainian state. Part of the Soviet strategy also involved suppressing, distorting and wiping out all information about the Ukrainian famine, now and ROUTINE PROCEEDINGS into the future to be known as the Holodomor-Genocide. Ï (1005) By enacting this legislation and recognizing a day of remem- [English] brance of this horrific tragedy, Canada will reaffirm her core values GOVERNMENT RESPONSE TO PETITIONS of defending human rights and condemning all injustices committed by humans against their fellow human beings, and to condemn the Mr. Tom Lukiwski (Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of greatest of all evils, genocide. the Government in the House of Commons and Minister for Democratic Reform, CPC): Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Standing (Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed) Order 36(8) I have the honour to table, in both official languages, the government's response to four petitions. *** *** PETITIONS COMMITTEES OF THE HOUSE INCOME TRUSTS HEALTH Mr. Ken Boshcoff (Thunder Bay—Rainy River, Lib.): Mr. Mr. Rob Merrifield (Yellowhead, CPC): Mr. Speaker, I have the Speaker, this petition is with regard to the broken promises from the honour to present, in both official languages, the ninth report of the Government of Canada on income trusts. The petition represents Standing Committee on Health. another group of citizens who have been hurt by the income trust fiasco and the broken promises. The petitioners are mostly The committee has studied Bill C-42, An Act to amend the concerned with the recklessness of this and the fact that there was Quarantine Act, and has agreed to report it to the House with an emphatic promise that there would be no tampering with income amendments. trusts. *** With expert witnesses now providing clear evidence that the UKRAINIAN HOLODOMOR-GENOCIDE REMEMBRANCE finance minister's decision has been based on flawed methodology, DAY ACT the petitioners trust that the government will rectify income trusts and make good and undo their broken promise. Mr. Borys Wrzesnewskyj (Etobicoke Centre, Lib.): moved for leave to introduce Bill C-450, An Act respecting a national day of *** remembrance of the Ukrainian Holodomor-Genocide. QUESTIONS ON THE ORDER PAPER He said: Mr. Speaker, it is with solemnity that I introduce my private member's bill, the Ukrainian Holodomor-Genocide Remem- Mr. Tom Lukiwski (Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of brance Day Act. the Government in the House of Commons and Minister for Democratic Reform, CPC): Mr. Speaker, I ask that all questions be The purpose of the bill is to establish the fourth Saturday in allowed to stand. November as a day of remembrance for the estimated seven million to ten million Ukrainians who died a horrifying slow death from The Deputy Speaker: Is that agreed? starvation in 1932-33 during the famine masterminded, organized and carried out by the Soviet regime under Stalin. Some hon. members: Agreed. 10124 COMMONS DEBATES June 5, 2007 Government Orders POINTS OF ORDER [Translation] STANDING COMMITTEE ON ABORIGINAL AFFAIRS AND NORTHERN Let us now turn to the Speaker’s ruling of October 3, 2006 DEVELOPMENT—SPEAKER'S RULING allowing the use of Standing Order 56.1 to extend, in an open-ended The Deputy Speaker: Before going to orders of the day I would fashion, the debate on Bill C-24, the Softwood Lumber bill. like to give the ruling on the point of order raised by the hon. [English] member for Wascana regarding the use of Standing Order 56.1 to timetable the proceedings on a bill in the Standing Committee on It should be noted at the outset that when Standing Order 56.1 was Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development. used in reference to Bill C-24, the bill was then before the House at second reading, not before a standing committee. In allowing the use On May 31, 2007 during routine proceedings the government of Standing Order 56.1 in that case the Speaker did so with some House leader sought, but did not obtain, unanimous consent of the concern and on the basis that: House to move the following motion: The precedents available to me, including my own previous rulings, are [therefore] insufficient for me to rule the motion out of order on this occasion. That, notwithstanding any Standing Order or usual practices of the House, when the Standing Committee on Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development convenes This is part of the Speaker's ruling quoted by the Parliamentary a meeting, it shall not be adjourned or suspended until it completes the committee stage of Bill C-44 except pursuant to a motion by a parliamentary secretary and, Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of provided the bill is adopted by the committee, agrees to report the bill to the House Commons. At the time the Speaker had more to say. He also within two sitting days following the completion of the committee stage. encouraged, as had Mr. Speaker Parent before him, the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs to examine the He then moved the motion again pursuant to Standing Order 56.1 appropriate use of this Standing Order, a pretty clear indication of and the motion was adopted when fewer than 25 members rose to the difficulties with which the House has had to deal when Standing object. A short time later, the hon. member for Wascana raised a Order 56.1 has been invoked in questionable circumstances. point of order regarding the use of Standing Order 56.1. He was supported by interventions from the hon. member for Joliette and the In the present case, the Chair has looked carefully at the wording hon. member for Hamilton Centre, while the Parliamentary Secretary of Standing Order 56.1, which states in reference to the House itself to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons argued that the Standing Order can be used to move motions in relation to that the motion adopted earlier had been appropriately presented “the management of its business” and “ the arrangement of its under Standing Order 56.1. proceedings”. Interestingly, the only reference to committees in the Standing Order is one allowing motions for “the establishing of the Given that a meeting of the Standing Committee on Aboriginal powers of its committees”, suggesting that the rule was meant to be Affairs and Northern Development was imminent, I delivered an used not to reach into the conduct of standing committee affairs to immediate ruling promising that the Chair would return to the House direct them, but rather in a routine manner, to provide them powers later with reasons. I am now prepared to do so. they do not already possess. A review of the previous uses of Standing Order 56.1 appears to support this. The only examples Ï (1010) dealing with standing committees or standing committee activity the [Translation] Chair has been able to find have to do with granting standing committees the power to travel. The power to travel is, as all hon. First, the Chair would like to thank all hon. members who members know, a power standing committees do not possess and so intervened on the point of order for their contributions on this the use of Standing Order 56.1 in that regard falls squarely within the question and is particularly grateful that members have taken note of parameters of the rule. certain key rulings, specifically those the Speaker delivered on September 18, 2001 and October 3, 2006. Accordingly, to repeat the words I used when this matter was first raised, the use of Standing Order 56.1 to direct the business of the [English] committee, of any committee, is a new development in the House and one that I find out of order. A key element in my ruling today is the fundamental precept that standing committees are masters of their own procedure. Indeed, so I thank all hon. members who intervened for bringing this matter entrenched is that precept that only in a select few Standing Orders to the attention of the House. does the House make provision for intervening directly into the conduct of standing committee affairs. In addition to the power the House has to give instructions to committees by way of a substantive motion that is subject to debate, there are, of course, Standing Orders GOVERNMENT ORDERS 57 and 78, which can be used by the House to allocate time or for closure proceedings on a bill in committee. It is toward the use of [Translation] these very instruments that the Speaker directed the House in his CRIMINAL CODE ruling of September 18, 2001, on Debates page 5257, where, as the hon. member for Wascana pointed out, the Speaker stated: The House resumed from June 4, consideration of the motion that Bill C-35, An Act to amend the Criminal Code (reverse onus in bail The expanded use of Standing Order 56.1 since 1997 causes the Chair serious concern.