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The Canadian Scene

61st Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) Canadian Regional Conference

More than 80 delegates took part in the 2025 CPA Canadian Regional Conference hosted by the Assemblée nationale du Québec. The week-long event, which included the Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians’ (CWP) Canadian Regional Conference, brought together attendees from all federal, provincial, and territorial parliaments, in addition to special guests from CPA Headquarters, and parliamentarians from Scotland and Wales.

CWP Canadian Regional Conference

Following the CWP Steering Committee meeting on July 20, CWP delegates gathered in the Assemblée nationale du Québec’s salle du Conseil législatif on July 21 for the official opening of the proceedings. 

After Nathalie Roy, President of the Assemblée nationale du Québec and Lucie Lecours, Québec Branch Representative for the CWP Steering Committee – Canadian Region and the Member for Les Plaines welcomed attendees to the provincial capital, CWP Chair Susan Leblanc provided an update on activities that took place over the previous year.

The first conference session dealt with women speakers of parliaments. Moderated by Ms. Leblanc, attendees heard reflections from Nova Scotia Speaker Danielle Barkhouse, New Brunswick Speaker Francine Landry, Ms. Roy, and Ontario Speaker Donna Skelly.

A second session examined work-family balance at the Assemblée nationale and included a video presentation of a unique documentary produced by the Assemblée’s studio: Équilibre. The film features a number of current and former MNAs who are parents, and is available on the Assemblée nationale du Québec’s YouTube channel and Le Canal television channel.

The final session of the day consisted of a workshop on combatting harassment in parliament. Presenters from the Assemblée nationale included Frantz Benjamin, vice-president and chair of Comité Zéro harcèlement, Sofia Jabrane, Commissioner for Respect, and Anik Laplante, Director, Secrétariat général adjoint à l’administration, du Vivre-ensemble et de la prévention du harcèlement.

CPA Canadian Regional Conference

On July 22, Ms. Roy welcomed additional conference delegates at the Assemblée nationale’s Agora for the main conference’s opening ceremonies, which included a rousing performance of several popular Québecois folk songs by a youth choir.

The first sessions consisted of brief jurisdictional reports from all CPA Canadian Regional branches and reports from Jarvis Matiya, CPA Deputy Secretary-General and Director of Operations, and Jeffrey Hyland Editor of The Parliamentarian and CPA Communications Manager.

Highlights from the jurisdictional reports included:

• A record 17 women MLAs (representing 35 per cent of New Brunswick’s Assembly) being elected during a recent general election.
• Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew giving a speech to the Assembly in Cree, which Speaker Tom Lindsey heralded as “another small step on our path to reconciliation.”
• More than 7,000 people responding to consultations by Quebec’s special commission on the impact of screens on the development of young people.

The second conference session explored parliamentarians’ role in protecting human rights. After showing a segment of a video describing Ontario’s efforts to tackle human trafficking, Ms. Skelly introduced three police officers from Quebec to offer their insights into the matter. They reported that maintaining communications among police across the country and internationally was important since victims are frequently trafficked across borders. They also reported that the typical victim is not whom you might expect and that language barriers are significant (as pimps transport French-speaking victims to English-speaking provinces to further isolate them).

Senator Kristopher Wells spoke about protecting human rights at a time of political backlash. Focusing on the 2SLGBTI+ community, Senator Wells highlighted how social media is dividing, polarizing and inciting us with “angry algorithms” and “manufactured outrage.” He explained that political scientists are increasingly finding that political polarization is not due to policy disagreements, but rather opinions and emotions (for example, tribal conflict). Senator Wells suggested this polarization is a threat to democracy as people who are polarized are more likely to vote in low turnout elections like riding nominations, giving them an outsized role in the results.

A third session examined elected representatives’ responsibilities in the Digital Age. Two members of Quebec’s special committee on screen time, MNAs Suzanne Trembley and Elizabeth Prass, discussed the committee’s work. The Assemblée nationale employs special committees of 10-12 members to investigate complex social issues in our lives. They are temporary in nature, autonomous, and sovereign in their mandate.

Ms. Trembley reported that the committee opted to look at screen time and screen time control measures, access to social media and video games, addiction mechanisms, cyberbullying, advertising aimed at young people, and minors having access to pornography, among other matters.

Ms. Prass outlined some of the special committee’s 56 recommendations, including:

• Prioritizing physical infrastructure (basketball courts, skate parks, etc.) to provide alternative recreational options to children
• closer supervision of e-sports.
• setting 14 as a minimum age for social media use and prohibiting selling of personal information and profiling of people under the age of 14.
• Prohibiting paid loot box and microtransactions in video games
• Regulating advertising aimed at young people
• A coordinated effort with federal government and other federated bodies to regulate age verification which would restrict access to pornography

Senator Andrew Cardozzo offered thoughts on social media and its impact on politics. He explained the differences between online news media and social media (a free-for-all), but noted that audience and advertising has shifted online. In this new media landscape, Senator Cardozzo compared increasing fragmentation online to shopping – with department stores declining in favour of stores with narrow product lines.

Expressing concern that some municipal councils have no media coverage whatsoever, he noted that older media receiving government funding would disappear within months if it were ended. Although there has been criticism that media receiving funding would be biased towards government, he contended that independent media is necessary to keep politicians and governments accountable. He proposed an independent media fund that would be at arm’s-length from the government, and putting more government advertising funds into Canadian media organizations.

MP Iqra Khalid discussed how misinformation and disinformation distorts public understanding and increases distrust in democratic institutions, but that its spread online (and particularly on social media) is outpacing any type of regulation governments can place on this industry. Nevertheless, Ms. Khalid outlined some recommendations from a committee that examined this topic, including:

• enhanced regulation of cross border data transfers
• increased funding for digital literacy
• a code of practice on disinformation
• enhanced powers for the privacy commissioner
• stronger digital security for government devices
• modernized legislation
• more robust education

A fourth session, held on July 23, brought together presenters who discussed disabilities and parliamentary life and how removing obstacles strengthened inclusion.

Mr. Hyland recounted how former Nova Scotia Speaker Kevin Murphy spearheaded the initiative to create the Commonwealth Parliamentarians with Disabilities (CPwD) group. Established in 2018, it currently has about 60 registered members from 25 legislatures out of 18,000 parliamentarians in 180 legislatures. Fostering the growth of the group has not always been easy, however. Specific challenges include different definitions of disabilities, different terminologies, and different ways of recording data of members. Mr. Hyland noted that the CPA has used a capital investment fund to assist legislatures who seek to build infrastructure such as ramps and accessible washroom facilities.

MP Alexandra Mendès outlined the Accessible Canada Act. With a stated goal to create a barrier-free Canada by 2040, the Act applies to the federally regulated private sector and Crown corporations and Parliament. She offered some details on the House of Commons’ accessibility plan, which includes Web content, guidelines and resources for equitable hiring practices, assistive technology.

Member of Scottish Parliament Pam Duncan-Glancy recounted her journey into politics as a person with a disability (an aggressive autoimmune condition). “Representation doesn’t happen by accident,” she explained, “you do it by design. If we see equality as treating everyone the same, then I (as a person in a wheelchair) get stuck at the bottom of the staircase.” Ms. Duncan-Glancy suggested that “positive action,” also known as “affirmative action,” is necessary to open doors to disadvantaged groups whose underrepresentation in parliaments and public life perpetuates the very system that creates barriers to full participation. She complimented her hosts, stating that the Assemblée nationale is one of the most accessible spaces she has visited, not only in terms of physical barriers, but also attitudes towards persons with disabilities. Ms. Duncan-Glancy also expressed interest in the GoodMaps app being developed by the House of Commons because it tells users about a location’s accessibility. She said that if she knows a place is not accessible, it affects her decision about where to go.

In the fifth conference session, MP Stephanie Kusie provided a case study in “the overhaul that never happened.” Explaining that a dramatic shift in voting intentions in the months leading up to the 2025 federal election dashed her hope that she would trade in her role as a shadow cabinet critic for control of the portfolio, Ms. Kusie discussed what changes she would have made as Treasury Board Minister, including focusing on the mechanism of government by overhauling the organization of accounts.

In the sixth session, BC Speaker Raj Chouhan spoke about the procedure involved when a presiding officer must cast a tie-breaking vote. Following his re-election as Speaker after the last general election there was an even number of government and opposition MLAs seated in the Assembly. During the last week of the most recent session, there were 11 votes where he cast the deciding ballot, two of which were at third reading. Parliamentary convention is for Speaker to vote in a way that allows debate to continue; however, some Speakers have opted to vote according to their conscience or even along the line of the political party under whose banner they were elected. Speaker Chouhan provided a case study of involving Bills 14 and 15 in BC’s Assembly. Both bills were extensively debated and studied and amendments were repeatedly defeated by presiding officers casting tie-breaking ballots during second reading. But, on third reading, the bills were defined as votes of confidence. To cast a ballot against these bills, the government would fall.

On the final day, a special session on Canada-US relations was convened. Christophe Cloutier-Roy, the deputy director of the Observatoire sur les États-Unis de la Chaire Raoul-Dandurand, explained that although there had been concern about the threat of an invasion or annexation of Canada dating from the time of the American Revolution, since the 1930s there has been no plan in the U.S to invade Canada, and instead an asymmetrical and complex interdependence based on trade, defence, and energy has developed.

Although many transnational actors want to maintain this relationship, during the second Trump Presidency there has been renewed hostility at the highest levels of political leadership, and as a result there is a new urgency in re-evaluating the current interdependence paradigm.

Geneviève Dufour, a professor of law specializing in international trade law at the University of Ottawa focused on the judicial side of the current trade dispute. She explained that President Trump’s statements about how tariffs are applied to supply management sectors are wrong. While the President has used ‘national safety’ to justify his tariffs, courts have ruled that this is not a proper or legal justification. However, as a political actor who has not demonstrated respect for the rule of law, Ms. Dufour questioned what will happen if he ignores a ruling from a trade panel. If Canada multiplied tariffs in response, would we risk waking up the beast? Ms. Dufour argued that we should negotiate, try to gain time, and try to show we’re nice players. Although diversifying Canada’s trading partners is a long-term solution, it should not become the be-all and end-all solution. In the short-term, she suggested that removing internal barriers to trade in our country could help reduce our dependence on the United States.

Luc Laliberté, a historian, columnist and political analyst, reviewed what President Trump has learned from his influences and advisors, including Roy Cohn and Steve Bannon, and how his playbook is to flood the zone. Mr. Laliberté offered some strategies to combat this tactic, such as reaching out to state governors and others, hoping things will get better once President Trump leaves in 2028, and remaining united in the face of an external threat.

Will Stos

Editor, Canadian Parliamentary Review

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