By Denis Carmel
OTTAWA – In a meeting hastily scheduled Wednesday afternoon for Wednesday afternoon and evening, the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage held a four hour meeting on Bill C-10 with almost no notice. Yes, FOUR hours.
We looked at the committee’s web page at 2:30 this afternoon and found no meetings scheduled. It was set for 4:30, then 4:45 and when the chair of the committee, Liberal MP Scott Simms, appeared at 4:51, he seemed a little peeved (as were we). He said that he tries to give as much notice before meetings, but said the whips of the four parties had decided late in the day there would be a meeting at 4:30, he only heard about it a short time before the other members.
He went on to say: “On behalf of staff, analysts, clerks, interpreters, technical staff, everyone involved, I ask you to please consider these people have families, that these people live in rural areas, like myself. We are not emergency workers, we are not paramedics, we are not fire fighters, we are not on call like that – these are called meetings normally, so to the four whips that I know who are on this call, please consider it when we do this again. Not just as a chair but as a human being, thank you.”
Then he asked for unanimous consent to continue while a vote had been called in the House of Commons. The Conservative whip said no. So, the meeting was then suspended until 5:50.
Then it went back to work to talk about the Conservative amendment introduced during the previous meeting which would reintroduce Section 4.1 – with parameters.
Section 4.1, of course, is the section in the original version of the bill that exempted social media from C-10, which would amend the Broadcasting Act. As reported by us and many others, its removal created a flurry of furious protest by some, and altered the course of the clause-by-clause examination process. Prior that moment, the Committee had dealt with 79 amendments and now, since barely half a dozen had been dealt with since, that prompted the government, with the support of the Bloc Québécois, to limit the debate in committee.
Wednesday evening, the committee went on to the usual discourse from Conservative members, including one who was slotted to attend a committee on Fisheries and Oceans that was cancelled, possibly to allow the Heritage Committee meeting to happen.
Then they even had the privilege of having the infamous Pierre Poilievre, well known as the Conservative attack dog, attend.
He, incidentally, mentioned his party would continue to fight this bill through all the stages.
The Conservative amendment was defeated, and the committee moved to the next Conservative amendment, but the clock ran out and then Conservative MP Kevin Waugh, a regular committee member, begged to suspend since the committee is now also scheduled to meet Thursday at 11 a.m. for two hours, meaning the five hours of debate allowed under the time allocation motion could still be met tomorrow. Update: The committee is now also scheduled to meet a second time on Thursday, at 3:30.
Alain Rayes then invited the members present in Ottawa to meet with him so he could share the muffins he had intended to bring to his riding earlier.
The Premier of Québec, François Legault, has also indicated he would make an announcement Thursday, at 1 p.m. on cultural issues. It is likely, we’ve heard, to be about C-10.
