As you may have heard, Conservative MPs refused to let debate collapse on Mauril Bélanger’s national anthem bill yesterday, not allowing it to come up for a vote as had been hoped in order to fast-track the bill through the process owing to Bélanger’s condition. While this has been described as a “filibuster,” it’s not quite, but it was dickish behaviour, make no mistake – particularly the fact that all of the Conservative MPs were making the same points over and over again rather than offering any new criticism of the bill (with such novel excuses that it would be a slippery slope – references to God would be next in line, and woe be the age of political correctness, and so on). As a quick explanation, private members’ business cannot be filibustered because it is all automatically time allocated. Under the standing orders, each private members’ bill or motion gets two hours of debate – each hour separated by the precedence list of 30 items, meaning about six sitting weeks – before it goes to a vote. If bills pass the second reading vote, they go to committee for a couple of hours of study before they get another two hours of debate at report stage and third reading (again, separated by the precedence list of 30 items), and then they head to the Senate, where there is no time allocation and they will often get more scrutiny – particularly at committee – but government business taking priority means that they can sometimes languish there for months. In this particular case, there was a hope that debate could collapse and there would be no need for a second hour of debate, but they also requested that they could go straight into the second hour, but the Conservatives denied consent to do so. After all, they had planes to catch back to their ridings. If Bélanger’s health deteriorates further and he is forced to resign his seat – and he did come to the debate directly from the hospital – then it would be possible for another MP to take on the bill in his stead, but that tends to require unanimous consent, and if the Conservatives continue to want to be dickish about this, then they can deny it and the bill will die without its sponsor present. And because this is a private members’ bill, no other MP can launch a similar bill in this parliament, since there are rules around debating the same bill twice. The danger for those Conservatives, however, is that the Liberals can turn around and put it into a government bill and put it through the process that way, which gives them all manner of other tools to use to push it through – particularly on the Senate side. And while nobody is arguing that the bill should pass just because of Bélanger’s health, the argument is that it should have come to a vote so that it could pass or fail at second reading. While Conservatives argue that they have a right to talk out the clock, the fact that they kept repeating themselves is a sign that this was a dilatory tactic and designed to be dickish, which is what has enraged a number of Bélanger’s supporters. And really, it’s unnecessary because it looks like they’re bullying a dying man, and no good can come of it. We’ll see if anyone is willing to trade their upcoming slot in the Order of Precedence to move Bélanger’s second hour of debate up so the vote can be accelerated, but it shouldn’t have been necessary.

Good reads:

• Justin Trudeau says that he will go to Fort McMurray, but not yet as he would just be in the way right now. He also said all federal aid requests have been met.
• The Auditor General wants regularly scheduled Senate audits, which may be an issue considering his notion of allowable expenses was different than Justice Binnie’s.
• The Harper government quietly awarded an “engineering” contract to Seaspan shipyards on election day, despite promising that the yard wouldn’t cost taxpayers.
• Northern Gateway proponents want a three-year extension so that they can get the project done right, including partnerships with First Nations.
• The government will appoint a panel to consult with Canadians affected by the proposed Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion in addition to the NEB process.
• The Canadian Press’ Baloney Meter™ weighs in on the Conservative claim that they left a surplus based on the Fiscal Monitor. (Spoiler: Some baloney).
• NDP MP Christine Moore is trying to make Parliament friendlier to her toting her baby around with her (but I really disagree with her “parental leave” suggestion).
• Kady O’Malley weighs in on the Duffy backpay issue, and the challenges he is likely to face with it.
• Susan Delacourt gives her assessment of the government’s first six months, and the three areas of focus she identifies.
• Tabatha Southey suggests even geekier census questions for Canadians to answer.
• Colby Cosh has a masterpiece about the wildfires around Fort McMurray.

Odds and ends:

Here’s a good debunking of that xenophobic meme going around Facebook that claims the government is spending more on Syrian refugees than Fort McMurray.

The Competition Bureau is getting new police-like jackets to identify their agents when they go to investigate offices.