All Studies & Bills

Orders of Reference

An order of reference is a decision of the Senate authorizing a committee to undertake the study of an issue, bill or other matter. Most committees require an order of reference before they can undertake such work. However, three committees are empowered by the Rules of the Senate to act on their own initiative without a prior order of reference from the Senate. These are the Committee on Rules, Procedures and the Rights of Parliament; the Committee on Internal Economy, Budgets and Administration; and the Committee on Ethics and Conflict of Interest for Senators.

Studies & Bills	Committee	Order of Reference	Session	note	note
Government Response, dated June 25, 2013, to the twentieth report of the Standing Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology, entitled: Prescription Pharmaceuticals in Canada: Post-Approval Monitoring of Safety and Effectiveness, tabled in the Senate on March 26, 2013	Social Affairs, Science and Technology SOCI	2013-06-26	41-1
Bill C-304, An Act to amend the Canadian Human Rights Act (protecting freedom)	Human Rights RIDR	2013-06-20	41-1
Show/Hide the list of witnesses Wednesday, June 26, 2013 at 9:08 AM Tuesday, June 25, 2013 at 10:00 AM Jane Bailey, Associate Professor, Faculty of Law (University of Ottawa) Kerri Froc, Staff Lawyer, Law Reform and Equality (Canadian Bar Association) Jo-Ann R. Kolmes, Co-counsel, Saskatchewan (Human Rights Commission) v. Whatcott (Women's Legal Education and Action Fund) Kathleen E. Mahoney, Professor, Faculty of Law (University of Calgary) Richard Moon, Professor, Faculty of Law (University of Windsor) Brian Storseth, M.P., sponsor of the bill (As an Individual) Mark H. Toews, Member of the Executive, Constitutional and Human Rights Law Section (Canadian Bar Association) Cara Zwibel, Director, Fundamental Freedoms Program (Canadian Civil Liberties Association)
Bill C-32, An Act to amend the Civil Marriage Act	Legal and Constitutional Affairs LCJC	2013-06-19	41-1
Show/Hide the list of witnesses Thursday, June 20, 2013 at 10:39 AM Brenda Cossman, Professor of Law, Director, Bonham Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies, University of Toronto (As an individual) Lisa Hitch, Senior Counsel, Family, Children and Youth Section (Justice Canada)
Bill C-60, An Act to implement certain provisions of the budget tabled in Parliament on March 21, 2013 and other measures, introduced in the House of Commons on April 29, 2013	National Finance NFFN	2013-06-13	41-1
Tuesday, June 18, 2013 at 9:36 AM
Bill C-419, An Act respecting language skills	Official Languages OLLO	2013-06-11	41-1
Show/Hide the list of witnesses Monday, June 17, 2013 at 4:30 PM Ghislaine Charlebois, Assistant Commissioner, Compliance Assurance Branch (Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages) Graham Fraser, Commissioner of Official Languages (Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages) Sylvain Giguère, Assistant Commissioner, Policy and Communications Branch (Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages) Alexandrine Latendresse, Member of Parliament for Louis-Saint-Laurent, sponsor of the bill (As an Individual) Johane Tremblay, Director and General Counsel, Legal Affairs Branch (Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages)
Bill C-51, An Act to amend the Witness Protection Program Act and to make a consequential amendment to another Act	Legal and Constitutional Affairs LCJC	2013-06-11	41-1
Show/Hide the list of witnesses Tuesday, June 18, 2013 at 8:32 AM Thursday, June 13, 2013 at 10:30 AM Yvon Dandurand, Criminologist, School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, University of the Fraser Valley (As an individual) Richard Dupuis (As an individual) Joanne Gibb, Senior Policy Advisor, Operations (Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP) Lisa-Marie Inman, Director, Reviews and Investigations (Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP) Ian McPhail, interim chair (Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP) Tom Stamatakis, President (Canadian Police Association) Deputy Commissioner Scott Tod, Investigations and Organized Crime (Ontario Provincial Police) Wednesday, June 12, 2013 at 3:18 PM The Honourable Vic Toews, P.C., M.P., Minister of Public Safety (Public Safety Canada) Trevor Bhupsingh, Director General, Law Enforcement and Border Strategies Directorate (Public Safety Canada) Ian Bradley, Counsel, Legal Services (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) Superintendent Stephen Foster, Director, Witness Protection Program (Royal Canadian Mounted Police)
Bill C-62, An Act to give effect to the Yale First Nation Final Agreement and to make consequential amendments to other Acts	Aboriginal Peoples APPA	2013-06-11	41-1
Show/Hide the list of witnesses Wednesday, June 12, 2013 at 6:47 PM Greg Rickford, M.P., Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development, for the Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency and for the Federal Economic Development Initiative for Northern Ontario () Jim Barkwell, Senior Director of Negotiations, South, Treaties and Aboriginal Government (Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada) Joe Hall, Grand Chief, President (Stó:lo Nation) Norman Hope, Chief (Yale First Nation) Jean Teillet, Chief Negotiator, Legal Counsel (Stó:lo Nation)
Bill C-48, An Act to amend the Income Tax Act, the Excise Tax Act, the Federal-Provincial Fiscal Arrangements Act, the First Nations Goods and Services Tax Act and related legislation	Banking, Trade and Commerce BANC	2013-06-06	41-1
Show/Hide the list of witnesses Thursday, June 13, 2013 at 10:30 AM Wednesday, June 12, 2013 at 4:15 PM Wayne Adams, Director of Membership Development and Community Relations (Canadian Tax Foundation) Andrew Kingissepp, Partner, Tax Department (Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP) Richard Monk, Advisor (Chartered Professional Accountants Canada) Carole Presseault, Vice President, Government and Regulatory Affairs (Certified General Accountants Association of Canada (CGA-Canada)) Michael Vineberg, Senior Partner (Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP) Tuesday, June 11, 2013 at 11:00 AM The Honourable Ted Menzies, P.C., M.P., Minister of State (Finance) (As an Individual) Ted Cook, Senior Legislative Chief (Department of Finance Canada) Kei Moray, Director, Intergovernmental Tax Policy, Evaluation and Research (Department of Finance Canada) Grant Nash, Senior Tax Policy Officer, Business Income Tax (Department of Finance Canada) Ed Short, Senior Chief, Business, Property and Personal Income (Department of Finance Canada)
Bill C-52, An Act to amend the Canada Transportation Act (administration, air and railway transportation and arbitration)	Transport and Communications TRCM	2013-06-05	41-1
Show/Hide the list of witnesses Wednesday, June 12, 2013 at 6:47 PM Robert Ballantyne, Chairman / President (Coalition of Rail Shippers / Canadian Industrial Transportation Association) Michael Bourque, President and Chief Executive Officer (Railway Association of Canada) Sean Finn, Executive Vice-President, Corporate Services and Chief Legal Officer (Canadian National Railway Company) Michael Murphy, Vice-President, Government Affairs (Canadian Pacific Railway) Tuesday, June 11, 2013 at 9:31 AM Greg Cherewyk, Executive Director (Pulse Canada) Catherine Cobden, Executive Vice-President (Forest Products Association of Canada) Allan Foran, Legal Counsel (Western Canadian Shippers' Coalition) Robert Godfrey, Director, Policy and Government Relations (Canadian Fertilizer Institute) Ian MacKay, Legal Counsel (Canadian Fertilizer Institute) Ian May, Chair (Western Canadian Shippers' Coalition) Richard Phillips, Executive Director (Grain Growers of Canada) Wednesday, June 5, 2013 at 6:45 PM The Honourable Denis Lebel, P.C., M.P., Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities (As an Individual) Carolyn Crook, Director, Rail Policy, Surface Freight Policy (Transport Canada) Annette Gibbons, Director General, Surface Transportation Policy, Surface Freight Policy (Transport Canada) Alain Langlois, Senior Legal Counsel, Team Leader Modal Transportation Law, Legal Services (Transport Canada)
Bill C-279, An Act to amend the Canadian Human Rights Act and the Criminal Code (gender identity)	Human Rights RIDR	2013-05-29	41-1
Show/Hide the list of witnesses Monday, June 10, 2013 at 4:01 PM Rebecca J. Bromwich, Lawyer (Canadian Bar Association) Sara Davis Buechner, Associate Professor of Music, University of British Columbia (As an individual) Susheel Gupta, Acting Chairperson (Canadian Human Rights Tribunal) Noa Mendelsohn Aviv, Director, Equality Program (Canadian Civil Liberties Association) The Honourable Grant Mitchell, Senator, Sponsor of the Bill in the Senate (As an Individual) Mary Muys, Member of the Board of Directors (REAL Women of Canada) N. Nicole Nussbaum, President Elect (Canadian Professional Association for Transgender Health) Robert Peterson, Co-Chair, Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Committee (Canadian Bar Association) Diane Watts, Researcher (REAL Women of Canada) Monday, June 3, 2013 at 4:00 PM Greta Bauer, Associate Professor, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics (University of Western Ontario) Ryan Dyck, Director of Research and Policy (Egale Canada) Ian Fine, Secretary General (Canadian Human Rights Commission) Randall Garrison, M.P., Sponsor of the Bill in the House of Commons (House of Commons) David Langtry, Acting Chief Commissioner (Canadian Human Rights Commission)