By Denis Carmel
OTTAWA – Second reading of Bill C-18 will resume next week in the House of Commons while in the Senate, a pre-study of Bill C-11 is being considered.
Last Thursday, the government House leader indicated that when they come back from constituency week, they “will be entering into the most intensive part of the parliamentary calendar, as we look toward the end of June. On Monday we will return to second reading of Bill C-18, respecting online news remuneration.”
In the Senate, the Liberal Senate leader proposed last Wednesday, motion No. 42 to start a pre-study of Bill C-11 to accelerate the process. It met with some resistance.
The Conservative leader offered: “If we pass this particular motion, it will be passed, in all likelihood, not before Tuesday of next week, which is May 31. Clearly, the very first time that the Transport and Communications Committee would possibly be able to meet, just to organize, would be June 1, which is their slot for their committees. That leaves us exactly four meetings, if we go to the very end of June.”
“I think you said that, in this iteration of Bill C-10, there have been 30 committee meetings in the other place. Now the Leader of the Government is asking us to do a pre-study and try to rush this through. He says he has no reporting deadline. Clearly, there should be no reporting deadline, because there won’t be time for a pre-study, a regular study or anything without us not doing our proper due diligence that this bill will clearly deserve. We have no indication of when it is coming here,” he went on.
“So I would suggest — I’m doing this the way your colleague did, Senator Gagné. I’m just encouraging her to agree with me. Would you agree, Senator Dasko, that there is simply no adequate time to do proper service or proper justice to this bill?,” he concluded.
It is unclear whether the motion will pass according to observers.
Meanwhile, the Heritage Committee met today about Bill C-11 in a hybrid format with witnesses and MPs participating remotely while the clerk was present in person.
