Hon. Tommy Banks:

Honourable senators, I will speak briefly on the motion of Senator Di Nino, seconded by Senator Stewart Olsen, which stands in the name of Senator Day. After I speak, I hope it will be adjourned again in Senator Day's name. I asked for his permission to speak to the matter today.

I have a reservation that I think Senator Day might share about this motion. It applies also to the adjournment I took on a previous motion. It resides in the fact that I am not sure — and perhaps I could be instructed in debate later — whether it is appropriate for the Senate per se, which is what this is, to call upon a foreign government to do something.

I understand it is appropriate for us to ask the Government of Canada to call upon a foreign government to do something. I would advise Senator Di Nino that I would be perfectly comfortable with this motion if it said that the Senate of Canada call upon the Government of Canada to ask that the Chinese government release from prison, et cetera.

As a general rule, I believe matters of that kind between nations are handled by the governments of the nations, not by the legislatures of the nations. The same thing obtained to a part of the previous motion we were talking about, which had to do with Pakistan, urging the government of Pakistan to do something. I am not comfortable with the idea that the Senate or the House of Commons should take it upon itself to urge the government of wherever else to do something without asking us about it. Matters of international relationships, treaties and the like, and those kinds of things are ordinarily handled government to government.

If we were engaged in a trade discussion, for example, with the Government of China, and those negotiations were going well, and all of a sudden along came a note from someone — I do not know how we would get it there — that said the Senate of Canada condemns someone for something, or urges that government to do something, I am not sure that would not have an effect upon the friendly nature that might have obtained to that point in respect of that negotiation.

I have a feeling it is inappropriate for one or the other of our legislatures to call upon, to urge or condemn a foreign government somewhere in any respect. I would prefer we did that through our government, which is a function of Parliament and not the other way around. That is my reservation on this motion and on the previous one about Pakistan.

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