CHPC Committee Meeting
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Minutes of Proceedings
Conservative
Bloc Québécois
NDP
Rachael Thomas moved, — This committee condemns the CBC for publishing a false headline based on disinformation from Hamas, a criminal terrorist organization, that incorrectly stated Israel was responsible for the explosion at al-Ahli hospital in Gaza that resulted in the deaths of innocent civilians, and given that,
The Prime Minister, the Minister of National Defence, the Canadian Forces Intelligence Command, the United States, the United Kingdom and France have all concluded this claim is false and,
The committee calls on the CBC to apologize to the Jewish community and all Canadians for spreading this dangerous disinformation and to publicly correct the record and to report this finding to the House of Commons.
At 8:29 a.m., the sitting was suspended.
At 8:36 a.m., the sitting resumed.
The debate continued
At 8:44 a.m., the sitting was suspended.
At 8:57 a.m., the sitting resumed.
The debate continued
At 9:10 a.m., the sitting was suspended.
At 9:22 a.m., the sitting resumed.
A point of order was raised as to the procedural acceptability of the proposed motion.
RULING BY THE CHAIR
The chair ruled that the motion is admissible given that the committee is considering matters related to committee business.
Whereupon, Peter Julian appealed the decision of the Chair.
The question: "Shall the decision of the Chair be sustained?" was put and the decision was overturned on the following recorded division:
YEAS: Martin Champoux, Marilyn Gladu, Eric Melillo, Rachael Thomas — 4;
NAYS: Michael Coteau, Anju Dhillon, Anna Gainey, Lisa Hepfner, Peter Julian, Taleeb Noormohamed — 6.
• Hamas has been a declared terrorist organization by the Government of Canada since 2002, and
• The horrific Hamas terrorist attack against Israel left thousands of innocent people dead and injured, and
• That an email directive sent from the Director of Journalistic Standards of CBC News, Mr. George Achi, to all employees of CBC News, directed them to downplay coverage of the horrific, sadistic, violence perpetrated by Hamas against innocent people in Israel by not referring to the attackers as terrorists, and to falsely claim that Gaza continued to be under occupation after Israel had pulled out in 2005,
• The CBC receives $1.4 billion in public funding through taxpayer dollars annually, and that this committee has a mandate to review Government expenditures, The Committee:
a) Denounce Mr. Achi’s comments and report this to the House
b) Summon the President of the CBC, Catherine Tait to appear for 2 hours by herself within seven days of the motion being adopted,
c) Summon the CBC Director of Journalistic Standards, George Achi to appear for 2 hours by himself within seven days of the motion being adopted,
d) Invite the CBC ombudsman Mr. Jack Nagler, to appear for a minimum of 2 hours to address the CBC’s position on Journalistic Standards and Practices. And of the amendment of Peter Julian moved on Thursday, October 19, 2023, which read as follows:
That the motion be amended by replacing the third bullet point with the following “That both the European union and us lawmakers have raised concerns about false and misleading content about the Israel-Hamas conflict being spread on Meta platforms.”; by adding after the words “public funding” the following “and that Meta and Google receive over $1 billion in indirect subsidies”; by deleting subparagraphs (a) and (b); by adding after the words “The committee:” the following “a) That the committee subpoena Rachel Curran, head of public policy, Meta Canada, to come before the committee”; and by replacing subparagraphs (c) and (d) with the paragraph “b) invite the CBC Director of Journalistic Standards, George Achi and the CBC ombudsman Jack Nagler to address the CBC’s position on Journalistic Standards and Practices.” And of the subamendment of Kevin Waugh moved on Tuesday, October 24, 2023, which read as follows:That the amendment be amended by deleting the words “on Meta platforms”; by adding after the words “and that Meta and Google” the following: “and other media platforms”; by replacing the word “subpoena” with the word “invite”; by adding after the words “before the committee” the following: “and summon the President of the CBC, Catherine Tait to appear for 2 hours by herself within seven days of the motion being adopted”; and by adding after the words “Jack Nagler” the following: “to appear separately for a minimum of an hour and a half each”.
At 10:16 a.m., the committee adjourned to the call of the Chair.