Happy Wednesday!
The House of Commons is back in session, though not much has happened yet. Just a quick Motion and a Committee Report to cover for now!
Motions
Vladimir Kara-Murza – Heather McPherson (NDP, Alberta, Edmonton Strathcona)
Our first Motion called for the release of Vladimir Kara-Murza, “honorary Canadian citizen and Russian democracy and human rights leader.” Vladimir is a journalist that was arrested in Russia and has recently been moved to a prison at an unknown location.
This Motion asked for unanimous consent, but was originally shot down the second Heather said the word “Vladimir”. Of course we don’t have a record of who opposed the Motion, but because Heather was interrupted she was allowed to try a second time and this time the Motion passed.
Committee Reports
This is a bit of a new one that I haven’t bothered with before, but think they’re worth getting into now. After a Committee reports back to the House the House gets to vote on if they agree with the report or if they have new instructions for the Committee. The Conservatives are frequently finding problems with Committee recommendations, so we’re going to start looking at just what’s coming back so you can decide if you agree with it.
Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs
So everyone probably heard about the Speaker participating in an Ontario Liberal Party Event. The big problem there was he had filmed a greeting for the event in his office while wearing his robes. Filming in his office and in his robes is already a problem, because you aren’t allowed to use government resources for partisan purposes. (And using them for an event for a political party is definitely partisan.) The Conservatives also question the Speaker’s neutrality when he’s deciding to speak at a political event, which is also generally not allowed. The Speaker is supposed to represent the House as a whole, so anything suggesting he favours one party over another is bad.
So the Committee came back with three recommendations on what to do about this:
- That the Speaker undertake the appropriate steps to reimburse a suitable amount for the use of parliamentary resources that were not related to the performance of parliamentary functions.
- That the House Administration be tasked with preparing, as part of the briefing binder, guidelines for any future Speaker of the House that presents clear boundaries for impartiality and non-partisanship.
- That the Speaker issue another apology clearly stating that filming the video both in his office, and in his robes was inappropriate, his remorse for the situation, and a clear outline of what he and his office will do to ensure this does not happen again and that the principle of respect, impartiality and decorum are values he will continue to prioritize as Speaker.
So they want him to pay for the time he used his office, clearly outline what he’s going to do to make sure this doesn’t happen again, and want to update the training for the Speaker to make it more clear what is and is not acceptable.
Amendment – John Nater (Conservative, Ontario, Perth—Wellington)
John Nater wants to send the report back to the Committee:
…with instruction that it amend the same so as to recommend that the Speaker tender his resignation in light of additional examples subsequently coming to light of his partisanship and poor judgment, including asking a former Liberal Member of Parliament to write an opinion column condemning the official opposition as well as attending a Quebec Liberal riding association’s cocktail reception for partisan supporters where donations were solicited
I’m not going to get into what happened with that opinion column or the cocktail reception, I don’t have the details and that’s beyond the scope of what I’m looking at. The main thing here is John doesn’t think the Committee’s recommendations are harsh enough and wants them to consider having the Speaker resign.
John’s amendment failed with 149 voting in favour and 178 voting against.
| Party | For | Against | Paired |
|---|---|---|---|
| Liberal | 0 | 152 | 1 |
| Conservative | 115 | 0 | 1 |
| Bloc Quebecois | 32 | 0 | 0 |
| NDP | 0 | 23 | 0 |
| Green | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| Independent | 2 | 1 | 0 |
Report Vote
The report itself was then accepted, 174 in favour and 145 against.
| Party | For | Against | Paired |
|---|---|---|---|
| Liberal | 148 | 0 | 1 |
| Conservative | 0 | 112 | 1 |
| Bloc Quebecois | 0 | 31 | 0 |
| NDP | 23 | 0 | 0 |
| Green | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Independent | 1 | 2 | 0 |
Closing Fun
And that’s all for now! We’ll have a longer post next week when more has happened, see you all then!