Proceedings of the Standing Committee on
Rules, Procedures and the Rights of Parliament

Issue 4 - Evidence - January 27, 2015

OTTAWA, Tuesday, January 27, 2015

The Standing Committee on Rules, Procedures and the Rights of Parliament met this day at 9:34 a.m. for the consideration of business of the committee.

Senator Vernon White (Chair) in the chair.

[English]

The Chair: I thank everyone for being here today. I hope you had a great holiday and happy new year to all of you.

This morning's meeting will be brief. We're going to deal with one issue, and that is the work of the Subcommittee on Parliamentary Privilege. The subcommittee consists of Senator McCoy, Senator Joyal, Senator Nolin, Senator Furey and myself, as well as staff of course.

We have been working for the last few months on the matter of privilege and have developed a discussion paper that we would like to bring forward to the committee and start conducting hearings.

Senator Nolin: I have a written proposal and then we can open the discussion. Senator Furey is unfortunately not available this morning, so I will be acting as chair of the subcommittee.

Honourable senators, on behalf of Senator Furey, I have the honour table the report of the Subcommittee on Parliamentary Privilege, entitled A Matter of Privilege: A Discussion Paper on Canadian Parliamentary Privilege in the 21st Century. I would ask for agreement that the discussion paper be appended to the minutes of today's meeting.

The Chair: On discussion, I will go to Senator Joyal and Senator Martin.

Senator Joyal: I want to support the unanimous report introduced by Senator Nolin on behalf of the chair of the subcommittee and its members. This report represents the results of four different meetings we had from spring to the fall of 2014.

We were charged by this committee to report to the committee by December. We're not that late. In fact we are just on time. We concluded our work in December, but because we didn't have the opportunity in the last week of sittings to have a meeting, we're doing it today. So we're not that late. You won't fine us, I hope, or punish us because we were late by 25 days.

Besides that, the report is very substantial, as you will notice in the index. It's a very good working document. It is a document that the full committee will be able to review. Committee members will be able to discuss how they want to tackle the study of that report.

I think it is a very good step that the Senate takes the initiative to reflect on this matter at this stage because many issues that are at various stages in the Senate's work touch on privileges. It is good to have a general reference framework, and that will be certainly improved with the further study that this committee would want to organize with the contribution of experts.

I cannot but commend the work of my colleagues on the committee: our chair, Senator Furey, Senator Nolin and Senator McCoy, myself and yourself, Mr. Chair, in the work of that committee, and of course the research people of the Library of Parliament, in particular Ms. Dara Lithwick, who has been very effective in giving effect to all the suggestions we have made in our meetings.

I recommend the adoption of this report.

Senator Martin: Earlier I thought a seconder was needed, which is why I raised my hand.

I see from the table of contents, as Senator Joyal referred to, that this report is indeed full of very important information. I look forward to reading it and thank the subcommittee for the work it has done. I absolutely support the motion by Senator Nolin and look forward to getting into the details of this report.

Senator Nolin: To give you a head's up on a few events that will be part of our ongoing work, first, this weekend there is a meeting in Winnipeg of all the presiding officers of the various parliaments in Canada, an important segment of which will be on parliamentary privilege.

Now that the document is to become public, we're going to use it. It is a document that requires discussion. For decades now the courts have referred to the need for such a document, and so we're going to use it in Winnipeg this weekend.

Second, I will, with Speaker Scheer, invite the presiding officers of Canada to come to Ottawa to be part of a conference sometime this year where we will discuss parliamentary privilege, because that is also of great interest to them. I think they were basically waiting for us at the national level to come up with something.

Third, and not to say the least, as Speaker I will travel to London to meet with the Lord Speaker. I have asked my colleagues who sit with me on the subcommittee to come with me and to meet with our colleagues in the House of Lords, who are also doing the same thing. We will bring together our knowledge and expertise to bring back to the main committee a full report on arguments.

The Chair: If there is agreement that we move this document to the full committee for hearings, I propose that subcommittee members meet with the steering committee to discuss and develop a strategy around the hearings, in particular keeping in mind some of the events you've talked about, ensuring that we have witnesses at the right times to make sure we gather as fulsome information as we can. If there is agreement then we'll do that as well.

Senator Batters: I will make that motion.

The Chair: Is it agreed?

Hon. Senators: Agreed.

The Chair: Thank you very much.

(The committee adjourned.)