So there were shenanigans in the Senate yesterday, the result of a confluence of a number of factors. Some of them are longer term – the terrible manner in which Harper has made his appointments has left a large cadre of Conservative senators who feel beholden to him and his largely imaginary whip. There are exceptions to the rule, but there are a lot of Senators right now who still feel they need to follow the PM’s rule because he appointed them, and that’s simply not the case. It was just a sensibility encouraged by the Senate leadership on the Conservative side who had far too many newbie senators in place at once. Then there’s the problem of the bill itself. The PMO has ruled they want to see this go through – never mind that it would create a giant bureaucracy at CRA, and that it could have “staggering” compliance costs for mutual funds and other organisations beyond the unions it’s targeting. It’s also a constitutional overreach because labour relations are a provincial jurisdiction, but the government wants this through because they see unions as a big threat to them. It never should have been a private members’ bill, but that was how they introduced it, and got it past the worst of the scrutiny on the Commons side because of automatic time limits. The Senate recognised it as unconstitutional and a threat to labour relations in this country, and even a number of Conservative senators opposed it. Led by Hugh Segal, they voted to amend the bill to near uselessness and sent it back to the Commons – but then prorogation happened, and the amendments were undone when the bill reset (thanks to Senate rules). In the interim, Hugh Segal retired, and Marjory LeBreton stepped down as government leader, almost certainly because of the caucus revolt over the bill. The Conservative senators sat on the bill for months before the PMO decided it wanted them to try and pass the bill. The Liberals, as is their right, filibustered. And they have the provinces on their side – seven provinces representing more than 80 percent of the population are opposed to the bill, and the Senate has a regional representation role. Things came to a head yesterday when the Conservatives tried to break the filibuster by trying to time allocate the bill – something they can’t do under Senate rules, and when the Speaker said no, the Conservatives challenged the ruling – something they can actually do under Senate rules. Kady O’Malley explains some of it here, and I responded with a Twitter essay.
One of the problems with PMBs in the Commons now is the automatic time allocation of 2 hours per stage. It severely limits debate… 2/n
— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) June 26, 2015
By not having time allocation on PMBs in the Senate, it gives them a chance to actually study, or in some cases, slow down these bills. 4/n
— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) June 26, 2015
Allowing time allocation on PMBs in the Senate means these faux-government bills (which #C377 essentially is) can also be rammed through 6/n
— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) June 26, 2015
It might mean they'd have to do something other than lob insults at the denizens of the Upper Chamber. Wouldn't that be awful? 8/n #SenCA
— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) June 26, 2015
So no, the rules don't need changing. The Senate rules committee looked into it and saw no need for precisely the reasons outlined. 9/9
— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) June 26, 2015