Speech (committee meeting)

{
    "time": "2016-09-29 14:25:00",
    "attribution": {
        "en": "Ms. Elizabeth May (Saanich\u2014Gulf Islands, GP)",
        "fr": "Mme Elizabeth May (Saanich\u2014Gulf Islands, PV)"
    },
    "content": {
        "en": "<p data-HoCid=\"4526513\" data-originallang=\"en\">Thank you.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"4526514\" data-originallang=\"en\">Thank you to the witnesses who are with us today in Leduc, Edmonton, and thank you to all the members of the audience who are here.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"4526515\" data-originallang=\"en\">This is such helpful testimony, and I wish I had more than five minutes. I want to thank you so much, Professor Wood. We also had the great honour of hearing from Bernard Colas, who was involved in the Law Reform Commission. I take to heart the approach the Law Commission took, because it helps us find our way forward as MPs at the moment when we have to sit down and decide which of these systems meet which of our standards and our most important principles. Clearly, fairness is a primary concern, no matter what system of voting we move to.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"4526516\" data-originallang=\"en\">Because this is a novel recommendation, and one that I have been personally interested in, I want to direct my questions to Patricia Paradis. I am very grateful to you for raising the idea of a reference question to the court. It has occurred to me in the past that this might be a useful thing to do, both to add weight on the legitimacy side of this question and to allay any concerns that we are tripping into any perceived constitutional tripwires. I have a background in law\u2014obviously not as distinguished as your own. It doesn't seem to me that there is a constitutional question here, but that concern could be laid to rest.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"4526517\" data-originallang=\"en\">Why do you think that a reference to the Supreme Court of Canada would delay our process? The court will either say, \u201cWe are taking the reference question\u201d, or it will say, \u201cWe don't think there as a question to be answered, so we are setting it aside.\u201d It seems to me that it could be done relatively quickly.</p>",
        "fr": "<p data-HoCid=\"4526513\" data-originallang=\"en\">Je vous remercie.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"4526514\" data-originallang=\"en\">Je remercie tous les t\u00e9moins qui sont avec nous aujourd'hui \u00e0 Leduc et \u00e0 Edmonton et tous les membres de l'auditoire r\u00e9unis ici.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"4526515\" data-originallang=\"en\">Ce t\u00e9moignage est tr\u00e8s utile et j'aimerais bien avoir plus de cinq minutes. Je vous remercie beaucoup, monsieur Wood. Nous avons \u00e9galement eu le grand honneur d'entendre Bernard Colas, qui a particip\u00e9 \u00e0 la Commission de r\u00e9forme du droit. Je prends \u00e0 coeur l'approche adopt\u00e9e par la Commission parce qu'elle nous aide, nous les d\u00e9put\u00e9s, \u00e0 trouver comment aller de l'avant au moment o\u00f9 nous devons d\u00e9cider du mode de scrutin qui r\u00e9pond \u00e0 nos normes et \u00e0 nos principes les plus importants. Il va sans dire que l'\u00e9quit\u00e9 est une pr\u00e9occupation cruciale, quel que soit le mode de scrutin que nous adoptions.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"4526516\" data-originallang=\"en\">Comme il s'agit d'une recommandation in\u00e9dite, \u00e0 laquelle je me suis personnellement int\u00e9ress\u00e9e, je veux adresser ma question \u00e0 Patricia Paradis. Je vous suis reconnaissante d'avoir propos\u00e9 l'id\u00e9e de faire un renvoi \u00e0 la Cour. Il m'est arriv\u00e9 de penser qu'il serait utile de proc\u00e9der de la sorte, \u00e0 la fois pour donner du poids \u00e0 la l\u00e9gitimit\u00e9 de cette question et pour \u00e9liminer toute crainte quant au risque de tr\u00e9bucher dans tout ce qui peut \u00eatre per\u00e7u comme un pi\u00e8ge constitutionnel. J'ai des ant\u00e9c\u00e9dents en droit, mais qui sont loin d'\u00eatre aussi brillants que les v\u00f4tres. Il ne semble pas qu'il y ait une question constitutionnelle dans ce cas, et cette pr\u00e9occupation peut \u00eatre laiss\u00e9e de c\u00f4t\u00e9.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"4526517\" data-originallang=\"en\">Pourquoi croyez-vous qu'un renvoi \u00e0 la Cour supr\u00eame du Canada pourrait retarder notre processus? La Cour dira soit \u00ab nous examinerons la question qui nous est soumise \u00bb, soit \u00ab nous ne croyons par que cela soul\u00e8ve une question, nous allons donc l'\u00e9carter \u00bb. Il me semble que cela pourrait \u00eatre fait relativement vite.</p>"
    },
    "url": "/committees/electoral-reform/42-1/33/elizabeth-may-1/",
    "politician_url": "/politicians/elizabeth-may/",
    "politician_membership_url": "/politicians/memberships/4108/",
    "procedural": false,
    "source_id": "9102693",
    "document_url": "/committees/electoral-reform/42-1/33/",
    "related": {
        "document_speeches_url": "/speeches/?document=%2Fcommittees%2Felectoral-reform%2F42-1%2F33%2F"
    }
}