Take none of hewing, crying over private members’ business at face value

OTTAWA—There was a great deal of hewing and crying around the recent privilege appeals by a number of backbench Tory MPs concerning their access to both Standing Order 31 speaking slots, as well as the content of those prospective statements.

The story lines bounced between the random actions of a few rogue MPs to open caucus revolt, and a fairly consistent condemnation of anything seen to constrain the freedom of MPs to speak their minds. This sounds like fairly serious stuff, but in all things political, I would suggest that you take none of this at face value.

Private member’s bills cut corners on lawmaking, say critics

OTTAWA—The federal Conservative government is shifting the way lawmaking is done. Private member’s bills — which get less legislative analysis or parliamentary debate than government bills — are the new black.

Since Sunday, four private member’s bills that make changes to criminal and corrections law have been publicly backed by the government as good additions to its tough-on-crime agenda.

Here’s what the latest batch would do: create a new criminal offence for recruiting young people into gangs, levy $5,000 fines or jail terms up to 10 years for wearing a mask or face paint at a riot (five years if it’s an “unlawful assembly”), give federal prison officials more authority to dismiss inmate grievances by deeming them “vexatious” or “frivolous,” and set up a forced debt recovery scheme for inmates who win money from lawsuits against the Crown to require payment of outstanding child support, restitution orders or victim surcharges.