Opposition parties not ready to give up filibuster as Liberals set for pre-summer legislative push
PARLIAMENT HILL—Opposition House leaders say the government continues to do a “poor job” of moving legislation forward and promise to continue to filibuster the Procedure and House Affairs Committee over changes to the House rules, saying it will be “the No. 1 thing” they’re focused on. MPs return to Ottawa this week with seven more House weeks scheduled until June […]
Liberals’ sweeping reform ideas seen as not all bad, but many say they swing power to PMO
Opposition MPs say a few of the ideas put forward in the Liberal government’s discussion paper on reforming the House’s Standing Orders are good, but many would weaken the opposition and strengthen “centralized” government control. “There’s some interesting ideas in here, but the balance would swing the pendulum of power in Parliament even further towards […]
Liberals won’t commit to meeting platform promises on transparency by next election
The government’s lead on Access to Information Act reform isn’t making any promises to change the law before Canadians go to the polls again in 2019. Treasury Board President Scott Brison (Kings-Hants, N.S.) wouldn’t commit to completing before the next election the changes to Canada’s access to information regime that the government has promised—including opening […]
MPs are right to stand up for the House, but they shouldn’t overplay their political hands
Something happened the other day at the Procedure and House Affairs Committee. The normally buttoned-down Conservative MP Scott Reid lost his temper with the Liberal majority MPs on the committee and accused Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberals of “ramming through whatever the fuck they want.” He quickly apologized and the meeting carried on, but the outburst, which was […]
Opposition parties say their ongoing filibuster a protest against Liberals’ ‘political thuggery’
PARLIAMENT HILL—Four days of filibustering the Liberals’ attempt to expedite House rule changes was a product of Conservative and New Democrat backroom collaborative efforts to present a “unified front” in the face of what the opposition called “political thuggery” from the Liberal government. In interviews with The Hill Times during and proceeding the initial four days of […]
Opposition MPs declare ‘war’ over feds’ efforts to ram through sweeping changes to House rules, ‘we’re filibustering to protect the right to filibuster’
PARLIAMENT HILL—Opposition MPs spent nearly 15 hours in the basement of Centre Block on Tuesday, holed-up in a committee meeting room filibustering the Liberal government’s attempt to expedite a study on possible sweeping changes to how the House of Commons rules, and the saga is set to continue on Wednesday too. After going through much of […]
Information czar barely keeping up with complaints, despite 30 per cent budget boost to battle backlog
Canada’s information commissioner has barely managed to put a dent in the backlog of complaints about the government’s handling of access to information requests, despite receiving a 30 per cent budget increase for that purpose earlier this year, statistics from the commissioner’s office show. It hasn’t been for lack of trying; the office of commissioner Suzanne Legault […]
Bigger workload, shorter timelines a growing ‘burden,’ says PCO
New priorities created by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his ministers have put the public service’s hub of support for the cabinet under growing strain, according to its annual report. An “increased workload and shorter timelines means an increasingly heavy burden on existing resources and expertise,” says a section of the Privy Council Office’s (PCO) […]
Opposition MPs filibuster House Affairs Committee over Trudeau government’s ‘despicable attempt’ to change way House works
PARLIAMENT HILL—Opposition MPs were filibustering the Procedure and House Affairs Committee on the Hill on Tuesday for more than three hours over what Conservative MP Scott Reid called a “despicable attempt” by the government to ram through sweeping new changes to how the House of Commons operates, including even when it sits. Mr. Reid’s (Lanark-Frontenac-Kingston, Ont.) made […]
Trudeau can fix our broken whistleblowing system: here’s why and how
OTTAWA—The House Government Operations Committee deserves kudos for taking the bull by the horns in its review of Canada’s failed system for protecting government whistleblowers. This week the committee will hear from no less than four experts representing countries that have much better laws: the U.S., U.K., Australia, and Ireland. The comparisons these experts can […]
