Symbolic and Substantive Relevance of Politicians with Disabilities: A British Columbia Case Study
Introduction
Category: Feature
Parliamentary Timing and Federal Legislation Referred to Courts: Reconsidering C-14
Parliamentary Timing and Federal Legislation Referred to Courts: Reconsidering C-14
Parliamentarians often express the desire to obtain the opinion of the Supreme Court on the constitutionality of bills. For example, parliamentarians thought of asking for the Supreme Court’s opinion in the recent Bill C-14 on medical aid to die. In this article, the author analyzes six contexts of hypothetical referral of Bill C-14: pre-filing, simultaneous referral to filing, post-filing referral, post-adoption referral, adoption Conditional on removal and referral to provincial courts. The conclusion is that while legislators want a court decision on the constitutionality of a bill, complications arise because the executive controls the current referral powers. Therefore,
Foundations: The Words that Shaped Canada
Foundations: The Words that Shaped Canada
Drawing on Library and Archive’s collection, the Library of Parliament curated an exhibit that features six of the most significant documents in Canadian and parliamentary history. In this article, the author gives an overview of the contexts in which some of the words that shaped Canada were written and identifies some interesting details on the documents themselves.
Introduction
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The 225th Anniversary of Quebec’s Parliamentary Institutions
The 225th Anniversary of Quebec’s Parliamentary Institutions
To celebrate and commemorate the 225th anniversary of Quebec’s parliamentary institutions, the National Assembly launched an exhibit entitled “1792. La naissance d’un Parlement.” In this article, the author presents some highlights from the exhibit and explains why cartoons were such a central part of it.
On April 4, 2017, in Quebec’s Parliament Building, National Assembly President Jacques Chagnon officially launched the celebrations marking the 225th anniversary of Quebec’s parliamentary institutions. In his speech, he noted, “It’s not every day that we take the time to recall the extent to which the National Assembly, its authority, its areas of jurisdiction and all the powers it now holds are the result of events that played out here 225 years ago and helped shape democracy in Quebec.” [translation]
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The Relationships Between Parliament and the Agents of Parliament
The Relationships Between Parliament and the Agents of Parliament
Working relationships can be quite challenging at the best of times. But when there is debate or disagreement over the nature of work roles and who answers to whom, this relationship has the potential to be especially tense. A recent seminar (March 31, 2017) organized by the Canadian Study of Parliament Group explored this dynamic by asking stakeholders and observers to come together to discuss the roles played by agents of parliament and the parliamentarians they may variously serve, guide, guard, investigate and answer to. Continue reading “The Relationships Between Parliament and the Agents of Parliament”
The New Senate: Still in Transition
The New Senate: Still in Transition
Over the course of the past two years, a confluence of events has dramatically altered Canada’s Senate. The upper chamber’s response to the Auditor General’s Report on Senators’ Expenses, the absence of a government caucus in the Senate at the start of the 42nd Parliament, and a new appointment process that brought in a significant number of Independent senators have all contributed to institutional change. In this article, based on his remarks to the 34th Canadian Presiding Officers Conference, Senator George J. Furey provides some observations of the impact of these events from his unique vantage point as Speaker. While acknowledging that these changes have created some tensions, he concludes that this transition can be defined by openness, flexibility, adaptability and a general willingness to move forward slowly without forcing permanent rule changes until the landscape is better defined.
After decades of reform proposals, a recent change has had a significant impact on the Senate. This change is reducing the partisan character of the Senate and making it a more independent, non-affiliated and deliberative body. What is curious about this change, is that it was achieved by non-constitutional means.
What is a Charter of Budget Honesty? The Case of Australia
What is a Charter of Budget Honesty? The Case of Australia
It is now nearly 20 years since Australia introduced a prominent piece of legislation known as the Charter of Budget Honesty Act (1998) to improve the transparency and the discipline of its budget process. This article examines the success of the charter, as well as its limitations, in the context of Australian budget process, including an analysis of its most pertinent components, so as to then reflect more broadly on the impact of budget honesty mechanisms for parliaments with a similar structure and history, including Canada.
In our time, most Parliamentary democracies in the world are faced with the question of how to maintain budget discipline, particularly with respect to three overarching concerns: a long-run reliance on deficits; the ability to manage unforeseen economic shocks; and the level of transparency and accountability in the budget process. Following the economic crisis of the past decade, more parliaments are finding themselves debating questions of fiscal discipline and fiscal transparency at ever more frequent intervals. Some legislatures have tried to give a more concrete form to their beliefs in budget discipline and budget transparency by enshrining them into charters or acts.
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Who Speaks for Parliament?: Hansard, the Courts and Legislative Intent
Who Speaks for Parliament?: Hansard, the Courts and Legislative Intent
Two significant Supreme Court rulings from the 1990s have opened the door to using Hansard Debates to divine a parliament’s intent in court cases which challenge understandings of laws. Although the Supreme Court rulings stressed that use of Hansard as a source in legal proceedings should be strictly limited, subsequent lower courts have not always observed these limits. In this article, the author outlines these developments and explains how the more liberal use of Hansard in courts can be problematic. He concludes by cautioning parliamentarians to be mindful of how the words they use during debate may be used by the courts in the future, and urges the courts to consider how some parliamentarians might begin using their speeches in parliament to win in court what they could not in a legislature.
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The 2015 Federal Election: More Visible Minority Candidates and MPs
The 2015 Federal Election: More Visible Minority Candidates and MPs
The federal election of October 19, 2015 established a high water mark in the representation of racial diversity in Parliament with the election of 45 MPs with visible minority origins. Their relative presence jumped over four percentage points compared to the 2011 general election and their larger number markedly narrowed the population-based gap in representation. As an account of this improvement in the representation of visible minority MPs, the focus here is on aspects of the candidate nomination process, with an approach informed by the supposition that heightened competition among the three largest parties engendered a greater degree of vote-seeking among immigrant and minority communities.
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Religion, Faith and Spirituality in the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia
Religion, Faith and Spirituality in the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia
This article aims to further a conversation about the role of religion, faith, and spirituality in public institutions in Canada by examining the practice of prayer in the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia. The authors provide a background of prayer in the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia, an overview of the differing customs in provincial and territorial legislative assemblies in Canada, and also public controversies and court cases which have arisen in response to these conventions. Following an analysis of prayers delivered at the opening of legislative sessions of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia from 1992 to 2016, the article concludes by comparing the content of prayers delivered to self-reported rates of religiosity, spirituality, and faith amongst the general British Columbia population.
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