| Historical Information |
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| This post is about a previous Session of Parliament. Any legislation here that did not receive Royal Assent has been terminated. |
Happy Wednesday! Another slow week last week with the continued filibuster in the House. We’ve got a pair of committee reports to look at, and the Senate has finished going over a pair of Bills!
Committee Reports
Job Cuts Announced at CBC/Radio-Canada (December 2023) – Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage (CHPC)
First up we’ve got an extremely short report on those CBC job cuts and the bonuses that were given to CBC executives that I’m sure we all heard about. The report that was sent to the House is nice and short, literally one sentence, that CHPC doesn’t think it’s appropriate for the CBC executives to get bonuses after announcing job cuts.
Amendment – Kevin Lamoureux (Liberal, Manitoba, Winnipeg North)
Kevin proposed that instead of accepting the report from CHPC that:
the eighth report of the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage, presented on Tuesday, December 12, 2023, be not now concurred in, but that it be recommitted to the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage for further consideration, provided that it be an instruction to the committee to study the consequences of defunding the CBC and Radio-Canada, including the effects on smaller communities, as promised by the Leader of the Official Opposition.
So instead of accepting the suggestion that the executives don’t get their bonuses Kevin wants the committee to take another look at it, this time including consideration of what happens if the Conservatives make cuts to the CBC.
Subamendment – Kyle Seeback (Conservative, Ontario, Dufferin—Caledon)
Kyle proposed a change to Kevin’s amendment, proposing that it be changed to:
the eighth report of the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage, presented on Tuesday, December 12, 2023, be not now concurred in, but that it be recommitted to the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage for further consideration, provided that it be an instruction to the committee to study the consequences of defunding the CBC and Radio-Canada, including how the Liberal threat to cut funding led to hundreds of CBC-Radio-Canada job cuts and, provided that it be a further instruction to the committee:
- That it report its findings to the House no later than Tuesday, December 17, 2024
- That, during this study, the following witnesses be ordered to appear for no less than two hours each:
- Catherine Tait
- Marie-Philippe Bouchard
- That the Minister of Canadian Heritage be ordered to appear for at least one hour
- That, in addition to the witnesses mentioned in paragraph (b), it hear at least three hours of additional expert testimony
So Kyle would rather look at the effect of the possibility of Liberal cuts leading to job cuts, and wants to hear from several people involved. For anyone not aware Catherine is the current president of the CBC, who’s currently on her way out, and Marie-Philippe is her replacement when her term ends in January.
Votes
First up is the vote on the subamendment. It passed with 178 in favour and 152 against.
| Party | For | Against | Paired |
|---|---|---|---|
| Liberal | 0 | 151 | 0 |
| Conservative | 117 | 0 | 0 |
| Bloc Quebecois | 33 | 0 | 0 |
| NDP | 25 | 0 | 0 |
| Green | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Independent | 1 | 1 | 0 |
The adjusted amendment was then passed with the same votes, as was the move to send the report back to the committee with these new instructions. So we’ll be seeing what comes back after the committee has looked back into the matter of the executive bonuses, the impact any promised Liberal cuts would have, and what the new President of CBC plans on doing about it.
Medical Assistance in Dying in Canada: Choices for Canadians (Feb 2023) – Special Joint Committee on Medical Assistance in Dying (AMAD)
AMAD’s second report covers its review of MAID and had come back with the following recommendations:
- The government continue to work with provinces, regulatory authorities, and medical professionals to harmonize access to MAID across Canada
- That the government continue to address the quality and standardization of MAID assessment and delivery
- That every 6 months Health Canada should report back on its engagement with First Nations, Inuit, and Métis on the topic of MAID
- That the government work with these groups to help increase awareness of the importance of engaging with them on the subject of MAID
- That the government work with Correctional Service Canada to have approved track one (impending natural death) MAID take place outside of a prison setting
- That the government consider increasing funding for palliative care
- That, since palliative care isn’t a requirement for MAID, the government continue with the National Action Plan on Palliative Care and look into ways to improve it
- That the government work to develop systems to collect data on Black, Indigenous, racialized, disabled, and 2SLGBTQ+ communities beyond what is currently required
- That Health Canada review the Special Access Program and other similar programs/laws/etc to find out if there’s a way to improve access to promising therapies, such as psilocybin, for both research and for use as a palliative care support
- That the government continue to support people with disabilities through measures to reduce poverty
- That the government look into possible changes to the Criminal Code that would prevent stigmatizing people with disabilities without affecting their access to MAID. (An example here would be to look at ways to replace any references to “disability”)
- That the government create an expert panel to examine the needs of people with disabilities as they relate to MAID, the same way they’ve made one for people with mental illness
- That, five months before MAID becomes available to people who only have a mental illness as the medical condition that qualifies them for it, AMAD be established again to check in on how prepared the healthcare system is for these new changes
- That the government consult minors, including those with terminal illness, on MAID. At the moment there weren’t a lot of opportunities for AMAD to speak with minors about it
- That the government give funding to departments for research into the topic of minors, MAID, and how it should be handled
- That the government change the eligibility for MAID to include minors that are mature enough to make decisions on it
- That the government restrict MAID for these minors to those whose natural death is reasonably foreseeable
- That the government work with provinces and Indigenous communities to create standards to determine if a minor is mature enough to make decisions on MAID
- That the government set up a requirement that parents or guardians of minors be consulted on MAID, but that the minor’s decision is still given priority
- That the government create an expert panel to look at the Criminal Code provisions related to mature minors and MAID
- That the government allow for advance requests for MAID following a diagnosis of a disease or disorder that would lead to incapacity
- That the government work with provinces, regulators, and relevant stakeholders to create safeguards for advance requests
- That the government work with provinces and regulators to develop a framework for interprovincial recognition of advance requests
A vote was held to accept this report and it passed with 209 in favour and 114 against.
| Party | For | Against | Paired |
|---|---|---|---|
| Liberal | 149 | 0 | 1 |
| Conservative | 0 | 114 | 0 |
| Bloc Quebecois | 32 | 0 | 1 |
| NDP | 24 | 0 | 0 |
| Green | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Independent | 2 | 0 | 0 |
Bill Updates
C-244 – An Act to amend the Copyright Act (diagnosis, maintenance, and repair)
C-244 has come back from the Senate unchanged and is now waiting for Royal Assent.
C-294 – An Act to amend the Copyright Act (interoperability)
C-294 has also come back from the Senate without change, and is now waiting for Royal Assent.
Closing Fun
And that’s all for the week! Things are going to keep being slow until this filibuster is dealt with. Worth noting here that on Friday there were a total of four quorum calls. For anyone who isn’t aware, “quorum” means that there need to be at least 20 MPs present in the House for any business to proceed. A quorum call means the Speaker called the MPs back into the House. The fact that there were four calls just means that people aren’t even bothering to show up with how little is getting done right now. We’ve been at this for a while now and are wasting a lot of money over this.
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