| 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. |
C-377 – An Act to amend the Parliament of Canada Act (need to know) – makes it easier for MPs to access information that needs secret security clearance.
Normally when an MP applies for access to information that requires secret security clearance (such as information related to national security, foreign affairs, or public safety) the MP needs to show that they need access to it to do their job. This means certain MPs have an easier time accessing information than others. This Bill changes it so any MP applying for clearance to access information is automatically assumed to need that access.
Progress of C-377
C-377 went up for its Second Reading vote and passed with 173 in favour and 143 against.
| Party | For | Against | Paired |
|---|---|---|---|
| Liberal | 3 | 142 | 6 |
| Conservative | 113 | 0 | 4 |
| Bloc Quebecois | 30 | 0 | 2 |
| NDP | 23 | 0 | 0 |
| Green | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Independent | 2 | 1 | 0 |
The Liberals are against this Act because they want to make sure appropriate measures are in place to prevent people from getting information they shouldn’t have. Worth noting here that Nathaniel Erksine-Smith (Ontario, Beaches—East York), Anthony Housefather (Quebec, Mount Royal), and Sherry Romanado (Quebec, Longueuil—Charles-LeMoyne) voted against their party on this.
The Bloc support it on the grounds that the government gets to decide what security clearance is needed to access information, and that makes it harder to get information about what the government is doing if they put something at too high of a clearance level, or in this case simply decides that you don’t need that information. They’re cautious about how this could be abused though, and would rather just see the government stop putting things at a clearance level higher than necessary.
For some reason the NDP didn’t get a speech on this one. Not sure what happened there. I do see a question about how other countries are dealing with issues like this.
C-377 is now before the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs (PROC).
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