Happy Wednesday!
Short week last week, the House only sat for 3 days. We’ve got a pair of Motions to look at and that’s all.
Opposition Motions
Food Prices
John Barlow (Conservative, Alberta, Foothills)
Last week we talked about John’s Motion to have the government cut a number of “taxes”. A vote has been held on the Motion and it failed with 138 in support and 194 against.
| Party | For | Against | Paired |
|---|---|---|---|
| Liberal | 0 | 165 | 3 |
| Conservative | 138 | 0 | 2 |
| Bloc Quebecois | 0 | 21 | 1 |
| NDP | 0 | 7 | 0 |
| Green | 0 | 1 | 0 |
Passage of Bill C-242
Arpan Khanna (Conservative, Ontario, Oxford)
Arpan has a Motion regarding Bill C-242, a piece of legislation he’s written. I haven’t covered this one yet but it basically makes it a lot harder to get bail for a number of crimes. The short name for it is the Jail Not Bail Act, so it looks like the Conservatives have finally decided to put one of their slogans on paper. It’s currently 10th on the Order of Precedence so it’ll be a bit before it goes up for debate, I should have a write-up done on it before then. On that note, here’s Arpan’s Motion:
That, given that,
- violent crime is up 55% under the Liberal government and repeat offenders continue to be released because of Liberal catch and release laws; and
- the Liberal government promised to pass criminal justice reform six months ago but has failed to do so;
in order to keep repeat offenders in jail and keep Canadians safe, the House is of the opinion that Bill C-242, An Act to amend the Criminal Code and the Department of Justice Act, also known as the Jail Not Bail Act, must pass and is committed to sitting extended hours, holding an expeditious committee study and undertaking such other procedural measures as may be necessary to pass it at the earliest opportunity.
So first, a note on the whole “six months” thing. Criminal justice reform was part of the Liberal election platform, and the House has only been in session for 2 of the 6 months since they made that promise. Not a lot of time to get a comprehensive new system put together.
As for what’s actually happening here, as I mentioned it’ll be a while before C-242 actually gets to go up for a vote. In the meantime the Liberals are saying that we’ll see their updates to the justice system this fall. As the ruling party the Liberals get to set the schedule for government business, so there’s a very strong chance their promised bail reforms will go up and get through the system well before Arpan’s legislation can. If there’s overlap between C-242 and the Liberal changes then once the Liberal changes have been voted on, pass or fail, C-242 will become invalid. The House can’t pass legislation on the same topic twice in a Session.
So what Arpan’s really after here is making sure the Conservatives get credit for bail reform, especially if he thinks the Liberals are going to propose similar changes.
No votes were held on this Motion last week, we’ll come back to this next week.
Bill Updates
C-218 – An Act to amend the Criminal Code (medical assistance in dying)
C-218 has been placed on the Order of Precedence. It’s currently #29 (of 31) so it’s going to be a little while before it goes up, but it’s now waiting for its Second Reading vote.
Closing Fun
And that’s all for the week! I’ll see you all next week when hopefully a bit more will have happened!
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