Bill C-38

Twisted but not broken?

How much is parliamentary procedure, how much is politics?

Un ct crit en roche, et lautre artistique et cratif, avec plusieurs flaps et autres choses. Parliamentary procedure crit trs droit et formel, politics crit trs flou. Un extrait du projet de loi.

... If the Minister considers that doing so is necessary to ensure the free passage of fish or to prevent harm to fish, the owner or person who has the charge, management or control of an obstruction or any other thing that is harmful to fish shall, on the Ministers request and within the period specified by the Minister, conduct studies, analyses, samplings and evaluations, and provide the Minister with any document or other information relating to them, to the obstruction or thing or to the fish or fish habitat that is affected or is likely to be affected by the obstruction or thing. ...

Introduction

Bill C-38 is an example of our democracy. Rules have been made so that governing is fair, and the parties twist these rules to fit their own needs. But they make sure not to break them so they dont get into trouble.

Politics
Parliamentary procedure
House of Commons
Writing the Bill The sponsor writes the bill with the help of their party, law clerks and the library researchers.

First Reading Second Reading Committee Report Stage Third Reading

The bill is read for the first time. The bill is read for a second time and mps debate. The committee, made up of mps, propose amendments. The committee presents the report and the mps propose amendments. The bill is read a third time and mps vote if it passes or not.

Senate
First Reading Second Reading Committee Report Stage Third Reading The bill is read for the first time. The bill is read for a second time and senators debate. The committee, made up of senators, propose amendments. The committee presents the report and the senators propose amendments. The bill is read a third time and senators vote if it passes or not.

Approval
Bill Becomes law The governor general approves the bill.

Comment est-ce que cela aurait tait diffrent si ctait un contexte minoritaire?
Lune des seules raisons que le gouvernement Harper a pu sen sortir avec le projet de loi omnibus est quil est un gouvernement majoritaire. Cela veut dire que mme si toute lopposition vote contre le gouvernement, le parti majoritaire gagnera quand mme et pourra passer nimporte quoi. La situation est la mme au le snat.

Les Conservateurs ont raccourci le temps.

Une autre torsion que le gouvernement a faite est quau lieu daccorder beaucoup de temps, il a donn un montant minimal de temps lopposition pour lire et tudier le projet loi omnibus qui contient plus de 450 pages. Pour cette raison, il tait presque impossible de lire le texte, et encore moins de produire des amendements.

LOpposition a cr des centaines damendements.

Parce que les membres de lopposition navaient pas beaucoup de temps et de toute faon ne pouvaient faire aucun changement au projet de loi , ils ont dcid de faire de lobstruction ou filibustering en anglais. Cela veut dire quils gaspillent le temps de tout le monde en parlant de nimporte quoi. Dans ce contexte, ils ont cr des centaines damendements, dont la plupart ntaient pas srieux. Par consquent, la chambre a pris 22 heures pour voter sans aucun but. Par contre, cela a attir lattention des mdia et de la population canadienne, ce qui

Les Conservateurs ont mis beaucoup de petites lois dans un norme document.
Lune des choses les plus controverses de ce projet de loi est comment le gouvernement la introduit. Il tait sens tre un projet de loi d'excution du budget. Par contre, Harper a fait un projet de loi omnibus et a inclus 70 diffrentes lois (protection de l'environnement, l'assurance-emploi, la scurit des frontires, l'immigration, les retraites, l'exploitation de parcs nationaux, l'aide trangre1) dans cet norme document de plus que 450 pages.

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2012/05/03 /federal_budget_2012_tories_criticized_for_using_

tait favorable pour lesmembres de lopposition.

La situation tait un triple whip, alors tout un parti vote dune faon. Pour cette raison, les MP et les snateurs conservateurs ont toujours gagn les votes.
Les whips de tous les partis ont dit que ctait une condition triple whip, qui veut dire que les membres de chaque parti doivent voter dune certaine faon, et sinon, ils perdront leur poste comme ministre ou membre dun comit et peut-tre mme le soutien de leur parti. Les projets de loi d'excution du budget sont toujours une situation triple whip, mais celle-ci ltait spcialement, important avec tous les amendements.

Straight and just as parliamentary procedure, Deadly and messy as politics.

Mdiagraphie
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_C-38_Jobs,_Growth_and_Long-term_Prosperity_Act http://rabble.ca/news/2012/06/ten-reasons-oppose-conservatives-bill-c-38 http://www.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?Docid=5697420&file=4 http://openparliament.ca/bills/41-1/C-38/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_C-38_Jobs,_Growth_and_Long-term_Prosperity_Act
majority_to_limit_debate_on_omnibus_budget_bill .html

http://www.parl.gc.ca/LegisInfo/BillDetails.aspx?Mode=1&billId=5514128&Language=E http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2012/05/03/federal_budget_2012_tories_criticized_for_usi ng_majority_to_limit_debate_on_omnibus_budget_bill.html

Reflection on Bill C-38

Bill C-38 is, although perhaps a bit exaggerated, good representation of our democratic government. as mentioned in the title, it shows how the bones and structure of the canadian government is the parliamentary procedure, the different steps and traditions, but the actual interesting parts are the politics and the political strategies. That part is where everyone tries to twist and bend the rules to fit their own needs and use any loopholes they can find. I find that this is a deficient part of our ruling system, and that in a perfect world where people did things for the good of everybody, we wouldnt waste time trying to remove the loopholes and instead work on the important matters. Our government is made up of hundreds of people, three hundred and eight of those being MPs. These elected officials are in place so that its not an anarchy, and that the population is properly represented. Unfortunately, if there is a majority, 142 of the 308 parliamentarians2 hardly have an influence. Even if they all vote the same way, they are still outnumbered and sixty percent of Canadas population are shut out. It would be better if we had some sort of census, where the result is for the good of all. These problems are especially important in the process of this bill, Bill C-38, because of its status, a budget bill. This means that it is responsible for the government spendings for the whole year. For this reason a lot of time should be dedicated to work on it and improve it as much as possible. But instead, the Conservatives only dedicated a limited amount of time to it, and then they took advantage of this and made it a 426 page long omnibus bill, cramming over 70 other bills inside of it. To get back at the government for this, all of the opposition wasted almost 24 hours filibustering to no real outcome. All in all, I think that It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried3. The concept is good, where everyone is equal and ruling is just, except that it is always twisted to some peoples wants and too much time is wasted. If people could just step away and look at the bigger picture, the world would be all the better for it.

2 3

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_House_members_of_the_41st_Parliament_of_Canada http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/w/winstonchu164161.html