Leaders of all the parties in the House of Commons have agreed to a “take-note” debate Monday night in the House of Commons to discuss the situation in Darfur. The chief characteristic of a “take-note” debate is that it is a debate in which there is no declared resolution to debate. In other words, MPs can get up and say pretty much whatever they please on the topic at hand.
On Friday, after Question Period, Liberal MP Keith Martin had this to say about the situation in Darfur:
The situation [in Darfur] has become incredibly worse this past week. Two basic things have happened. No. 1, there are meetings between Iran … and Sudan. Iran wants to transfer nuclear technology to Sudan and Sudan wants to acquire nuclear capabilities. This is a very serious problem.
The second thing is that they are running out of food in the camps which is going to result in starvation. The United Nations have already cut down the food that they are giving to refugees by over 50 per cent and these people will starve to death. The janjaweed Khartoum- sponsored rebels are slaughtering people at will right now and Khartoum is blocking the United Nations from going in. What we desperately need right now is we need the government of Canada to submit a motion at the Security Council level calling on the United Nations to put in a chapter 7 peacemaking forces to Darfur as soon as possible. That is the only way that we are going to stop the carnage in Darfur. It is the only way we are going to stop the genocide. It is the only way we are going to save innocent civilians.
The take-note debate is one way of letting MPs chew over a particular topic with no danger that the House will take a particular position on the issue and commit the government to one course of action or another. So Martin, for example, will not be allowed to introduce a motion that might call upon the government to take some action at the UN.
That’s one of the problems with these “take-note” debates: Because there is no declared resolution — a “Be It Resolved That …” kind of statement — the debate can be unfocused and attendance is poor. The last significant “take note” debate was on Canada’s role in Afghanistan and it was indeed unfocused and attendance was poor.
The take-note debate on Darfur will likely begin shortly after 6 pm Ottawa time on Monday night.