CIMM Committee Meeting
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Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration
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EVIDENCE
Thursday, November 28, 2024
[Recorded by Electronic Apparatus]
[English]
I call this meeting to order. We are meeting in public.
Welcome to meeting number 118 of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration. Today's meeting is taking place in a hybrid format.
I would like to remind participants of the following points. Please wait until I recognize you by name before speaking. All comments should be addressed through the chair. Whether participating in person or via Zoom, please raise your hand if you wish to speak. The clerk and I will manage the speaking order as best we can.
Ms. Kayabaga, you will be able to vote, but you will not be able to speak, because you do not have an approved headset on.
Pursuant to Standing Order 108(2) and the motion adopted by the committee at the meeting convened on October 21, 2024, the committee is resuming its study of the recent reforms to the international student program.
I would now like to....
MP Kwan, do you want to say something?
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
At our last meeting, we were debating a very important motion that the Liberals had put on the floor relating to the need to have a study regarding Gazan family members, the situation they are faced with and the inability for them to get to safety. We were in the midst of almost wrapping up that motion, and there were a number of amendments on the floor.
At the time, I moved an amendment for the production of documents, Mr. Chair, to which the Conservative MP Greg McLean moved an amendment to add that the production of documents include the period in which the Sudan special measures had come into play.
I don't have unanimous consent, so I will not be able to continue the meeting.
Go ahead, Mr. Chiang.
I'm sorry; the bells have rung. We should not be proceeding. You don't have unanimous consent, so we have to pause.
I have the floor, so Mr. Chiang will not get the floor when we come back.
I call the meeting back to order.
Before I give the floor to MP Kwan, I see that the witnesses for the second hour are here. I'm going to release the witnesses from the first hour.
With that, MP Kwan, I have given you the floor. Do you have a motion that you want to bring forward, or are you done?
No. I have something to say, Mr. Chair.
As I was saying before we paused, we were debating the motion that was about the Gazan community, and then—
Thank you.
With all due respect to Ms. Kwan, I don't think we were debating that motion. I think she was starting to talk about a motion. I would suggest, if there is a motion, to move the motion. Otherwise, we should move on.
Thank you.
It's perfectly right what Mr. Redekopp has said.
MP Kwan, because I gave you the floor, you have the opportunity to bring in a dilatory motion to resume the debate. If we have a vote, then you will be able to speak.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I am going to be moving a motion. I was trying to remind both committee members and the public where we are, because I don't think the public knows exactly what's going on. It's just a reminder to let people know where we left off. Last time, where we left off, there were a series of amendments, Mr. Chair—
I'll repeat myself. Again, either there's a motion on the floor, or we move to our witnesses. I don't know what else we're doing here. I would ask the member, if she has a motion, to move her motion.
That's absolutely right, Mr. Redekopp.
MP Kwan, if you want to bring the motion forward, please raise it. Otherwise, I'm going to go to the witnesses.
All right. Before I move my motion, I want to check with the clerk to make sure that we have all the language in the amendments in both French and English available.
It's ready. If the dilatory motion to resume the debate goes forward, then we will forward that.
Do you want to bring the motion—
I know you'll forward it if we resume the debate, but was it forwarded to committee members after the last meeting? Do we have that language sent to committee members?
Chair, we have witnesses here for the second panel, and you've just excused the first one.
We're not in committee business. This is a debate for committee business time. The rules are clear.
We're supposed to hear from the witnesses, some of whom have travelled a long way to give their testimony before the committee. It's highly irregular for this to be done in this way. If there is a motion to be moved for reconsideration of debate, then let it be moved. Let's have the vote and proceed before the House has another vote, which we know is going to happen today.
Otherwise, this is an out-of-order discussion, because we're not in committee business.
I agree with Mr. Kmiec.
MP Kwan, I'm sorry. I gave you the floor, but now I cannot give you any more opportunity, because the members seem to be agitated.
If you want to bring the motion forward, please do. I can assure you that both the French and the English versions are ready. If the vote goes through to continue the debate, our clerk will be able to circulate that.
With that, I give the floor—last chance—to MP Kwan. If you want to, bring the motion forward, or we'll just will carry on with the witnesses. The witnesses have been here. For the first witnesses, I had to release them, and now I can see that the witnesses for the second hour are here and we are already five or 10 minutes into their time.
Please let me know.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. That's so kind—also the committee members. I'd be happy to move a motion with respect to the debate we were having at the previous meeting.
Mr. Chair, I move that we resume debate on that motion, with the various amendments. To my recollection, where we were at was that there was an amendment on the floor from Mr. McLean, and I would move that we resume the debate where we left off at the last meeting, Mr. Chair.
[Translation]
I have a point of order, Mr. Chair.
When you asked to release the witnesses earlier, you didn't say whether you would invite them back to speak at another meeting. I just want to make sure that we'll have a chance to hear from these witnesses at a later date.
Can you confirm this?
[English]
That's 100%, Mr. Brunelle-Duceppe.
Now there is a dilatory motion on the floor. There's no debate on this one, but there is a vote.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to all the members for the vote today.
With regard to all the votes that are happening today and our witnesses not being able to speak, I would like to move that we adjourn our meeting and call the witnesses to be on this panel at another time.
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