Roundup: A baffling way to fast-track a bill

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The House of Commons began their fast-tracked debate on Bill C-39 yesterday, which is the bill to delay the onset of making mental disorder the sole criteria for accessing Medical Assistance in Dying, but even before debate got started, the government moved their motion to fast-track it in the most unusual and frankly unserious way possible. The motion extends sittings to midnight Monday and Wednesday (they sat until about 10:30 last night), all in the service of second reading debate. At midnight or collapse of debate on Wednesday, the bill is deemed to have been adopted at second reading, deemed to have been send to committee of the whole, deemed adopted and reported back, deemed to be adopted at third reading, and sent off to the Senate. The same motion also authorized the justice committee to sit as long as they need to today to consider the bill, and to be given priority of resources (i.e. interpreters) from any other committee for their study. But they don’t actually report back to the Commons (remember it is deemed to have gone to committee of the whole), so I’m not sure what the point of the exercise is.

Procedurally, this is bonkers, and furthermore, it just exacerbates the fact that we have a completely broken understanding of what second reading debate is supposed to be in this country. It’s where you debate the overall purpose of the bill, and it should last a single afternoon, with a handful speeches and some debate, and then be sent off to committee where they can do the real work. But instead, our Parliament has decided that second reading debate needs days upon days of canned speeches—particularly on a bill like this where everyone can stand up and say how “deeply personal” the issue is, and where a large number of Conservatives in particular can decry it and repeat a bunch of false assertions and misinformation about what this is supposed to be about. None of how they went about this makes any sense (and I remind you that the bill is one line). If all of the parties decided to fast-track this, there should have been a single speech from each party, and then to send it to committee for actual consideration today, so it can be sent back on Wednesday for final consideration. They didn’t need to contort themselves in this way in order to give everyone speaking time (like they did with the interminable speeches for the invocation of the Emergencies Act).

Once again, this is another signal of how unserious our Parliament is, and that it has devolved into little more than an exercise in reading canned speeches into the record. Nobody is actually being served by this, and our MPs need to grow up and start actually engaging with the material before them.

Ukraine Dispatch, Day 356:

Bakhmut and its suburbs are being subjected to heavy shelling as Russia’s new offensive has begun, and Ukraine says that they have fortified their positions in the area. Russians have also struck in Kharkiv, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia regions, and have been fortifying their own positions in the south of the country. Meanwhile, the Secretary-General of NATO warned that Ukraine is using ammunition faster than allies can provide it, and is trying to put pressure on Western defence industries to ramp up production as Russia is with its own industries.

Good reads:

  • Justin Trudeau was in Whitehorse to mark the 50th anniversary of a self-government agreement with local First Nations.
  • Trudeau also remarked that there is a “pattern” with the balloons that have been downed, but also noted they are waiting to analyse the debris.
  • Officials admit that the recent spate of balloon intrusions has shown there are gaps in our airspace surveillance, and they are working to resolve it.
  • François-Philippe Champagne released new directives to the CRTC around increasing competition in the telecom sector.
  • Pascale St-Onge points out that she doesn’t have the jurisdiction to investigate most sports abuses and is trying to get provinces onboard with mechanisms.
  • The federal government has decided to expropriate land in order to build a rail bypass around Lac-Mégantic after negotiations broke down.
  • The department of Canadian Heritage has changed the rules for funding as part of their anti-racism strategy after the embarrassing Laith Marouf situation.
  • The Royal Canadian Air Force is dealing with a major personnel shortage as they start transitioning to newer equipment and platforms.
  • The RCAF has ordered the kind of missiles the Americans used to down those balloons, but they haven’t been delivered yet.
  • The RCMP have been half-assing mandatory anti-racism training, and half the force hasn’t bothered to take the course at all. (Time to disband them. Seriously).
  • The Conservatives supported a Bloc Supply Day motion saying that provinces have a legitimate right to use the Notwithstanding Clause pre-emptively.
  • The premiers have agreed to accept the federal health transfer increases (as if they had a choice), and Doug Ford is trying to position himself as a “leader” on the file.
  • Stephanie Carvin puts the issue of “spy balloons” and espionage into the broader context of the challenges western countries face from countries like China.

Odds and ends:

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One thought on “Roundup: A baffling way to fast-track a bill”

  1. Dale,

    “The RCMP have been half-assing mandatory anti-racism training, and half the force hasn’t bothered to take the course at all. (Time to disband them. Seriously).”

    What would you want to be created to replace the Royal Canadian Mounted Police?

    Provincial Police Forces/Services with a few specific Federal law enforcement agencies?

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