The three bills, C-38, the hotly-contested omnibus Budget Implementation Bill; Bill C-31, the immigration and refugee legislation that has inspired angry criticism over stiff new restrictions on refugee claimants; and Bill C-11, long-sought changes to copyright law that will increase download fees and make internet service providers also responsible for copyright violations, will likely receive royal assent late afternoon Friday.
The sudden onslaught of government time allocation motions in the final week of Senate sittings prior to its summer recess, with the House of Commons already adjourned until September, took Liberal Senators and observers by surprise. Up to now, it was expected the government would hold off the copyright bill at least for further scrutiny in the fall, although the government had signalled its intent to pass the immigration and refugee changes, as well as the 425-page budget bill, before Canada Day.
Liberal Senator James Cowan, leader of the opposition in the Senate, said the limit to final debate on the three bills could be related to rumours about a prorogation of Parliament shortly before its scheduled resumption on Sept. 17, followed by a Throne Speech later in the month.
“I’m not sure, obviously only one person knows,” Sen. Cowan told The Hill Times. “I’ve heard that speculation, I don’t know, maybe that’s the reason, they certainly haven’t said that.”
The Prime Minister's Office said there is no plan to prorogue Parliament. "The government will not be proroguing," said Andrew MacDougall, Mr. Harper's director of communications, in an email.
Rumours have circulated within the Senate that Mr. Harper (Calgary Southwest, Alta.), recognizing his efforts to achieve an elected Senate through piecemeal measures such as voluntary Senate term limits to eight years and provincial agreements for informal elections of Senate nominees have failed, intends to attempt formal constitutional amendments.
Such a major initiative might explain Mr. Harper’s recent overtures to the Parti Québécois and his private meetings and discussions with former Progressive Conservative prime minister Brian Mulroney, whose failed constitutional Meech Lake accord with Quebec and the other provinces led to the ruin of the federal Progressive Conservative party in western Canada and the rise of the Bloc Québécois in Quebec. Such a plan would be in stark contrast to the fiscal, economic and crime agendas that have dominated Mr. Harper’s majority government to now.
Sen. Cowan criticized the government for failing to bring the three key bills into the Senate earlier and accused the Conservatives of deliberately delaying their initial stages through the Commons. The government rushed the bills through at the last minute in the Commons as part of its record imposition of time allocation on debates in this Parliament, shortening time for the kind of scrutiny the Senate usually is able to give major legislation.
“Stuff you do at the last minute, under pressure, is never your best work, whatever business you are in, and that’s the real problem. If we had said we’re going to rag the puck here, we’re going to delay and keep going, I could say, ‘Okay, enough of that,’” Sen. Cowan told The Hill Times.
“What I’ve said all along is there is no need to do this, we never gave any indication that we were going to block these things or delay them in any way. None of these bills are time sensitive, there’s nothing,” Sen. Cowan said.
“I think it’s the wrong way to do business. We’re supposed to be the House of sober, second thought, we’re supposed to take our time, our committees have a reputation for doing good work, we should get these things in time and study them, and if that means we don’t it done in June, we get it done in the fall,” Sen. Cowan said.
A spokesman for Commons Government House Leader Peter Van Loan (York-Simcoe, Ont.) forwarded questions from The Hill Timesto the office of Conservative Senator Marjory LeBreton, government Leader in the Senate, which were not responded to by late afternoon Wednesday.
Quebec Conservative Senator Claude Carignan, deputy leader of the government in the Senate, who earlier moved time allocation on the budget bill, which contains sweeping limits to federal environmental assessments and gives new powers to the federal Cabinet to approve major oil pipeline projects, argued that the immigration legislation required speedy passage before earlier changes to the refugee system were scheduled to take effect at the end of June.
But Alberta Liberal Senator Claudette Tardif, deputy leader of the opposition in the Senate, argued that the Senate has barely had time to review a detailed report on Bill C-31 from the Senate Standing Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology.
Sen. Tardif protested the bill’s provisions to limit refugee family reunification for five years, along with possible detention of refugee claimants for up to six months without judicial review
A separate Cabinet order the government passed in April, which comes into force the same day as Bill C-31, restricts free health services for refugee claimants, denying even free primary health care to refugee claimants from countries the Conservative government has listed as ones where refugees from persecution is not required unless there is a medical condition that puts public safety or public health at risk. Physicians doctors opposing the provision recently demonstrated at the Toronto office of Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver (Eglinton-Lawrence, Ont.) and again this week when Mr. Oliver attempted to announce medical funding at a Toronto hospital.
Sen. Tardif quoted the House of Commons sponsor of the refugee clampdown, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney (Calgary Southeast, Alta.), from a speech he made in the House of Commons to protest Liberal government limits on debate in 1998.
“This is Parliament, the purpose of this place is to deliberate on legislation brought forward by the government,” Mr. Kenney, then a rising star in the Reform Party, told the House. “It is not to rubber stamp legislation brought forward by the bureaucracy or the executive branch. It is to deliberate, to debate, to amend, to consider, to ensure that those who pay the bills for the legislation we pass have their concerns fully and exhaustively expressed with respect to every single piece of legislation.”
Original Article
Source: hill times
Author: Tim Naumetz
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