Special Debates / Emergency Debates

Leave refused: Maher Arar inquiry: matter deemed not an emergency

September 20, 2006

Debates, p. 3029

On September 20, 2006, further to the tabling two days earlier of the Report of the O’Connor Commission on the results of the Maher Arar inquiry, Joe Comartin (Windsor–Tecumseh) rose in the House to request that an emergency debate be held in that regard, pursuant to Standing Order 52.^[1] Mr. Comartin argued that it was the responsibility of individual Members and the House of Commons to speak out on this issue as the treatment of Mr. Arar and his family by the police had generated outrage. He maintained that an emergency debate would allow the House to give advice to the Government and to express its opinion with regard to the three other individuals mentioned in the Report who were not included in the mandate of the Commission when it was established. He stressed the urgency of the need for an immediate response to the Report.

The Speaker ruled immediately. He noted that the Report of the O’Connor Commission had been in preparation for months, if not years, and observed that he was not convinced that the tabling of the Report had created an emergency worthy of debate in the House on that basis. He drew the attention of the Member to the provisions of the Standing Orders in respect of take-note debates and invited him to attempt to arrange a debate through that mechanism.

Decision of the Chair

The Speaker: I thank the hon. Member for Windsor–Tecumseh for his very able argument in respect of this matter. Certainly I am not in any way suggesting that the matter is not a serious one and something that is worthy of discussion. Of course we have witnessed considerable discussion on the matter in the House during Question Period for the last couple of days since that tabling of the Report, and I am sure there will be more, but the difficulty the hon. Member faces, I think, in making his argument is whether this is an emergency.

The Report has been in preparation for a number of months, if not years. We have now received it and I am not convinced by the hon. Member’s argument that the tabling of the Report has created an emergency that is worthy of being a subject of debate in the House on that basis. I would stress to him, as I did the other day in my ruling on the earlier request this week, that there are provisions in the Standing Orders for the House Leaders to agree on a take-note debate, which in my view would permit discussion on the subjects outlined by the hon. Member. That is a matter that can be agreed to by the House Leaders of the parties and carried on in this House at a time they choose.

I would invite the hon. Member, rather than asking the Chair to declare this an emergency, to raise the matter there and see if he cannot arrange a debate through that medium rather than this one, which in my view is inappropriate in the circumstances, given, as I have said, my view that this Report has not created an emergency in the country that ought to be dealt with in this way. I must therefore decline the hon. Member’s request and wish him well in raising the matter elsewhere.