Emergencies Act
Point of Order--Speaker's Ruling Reserved
March 3, 2022
I rise on a point of order. You said that the motion was adopted, but then you went back on the decision because two senators rose. Since you had already made the decision, may I know why we are reversing course?
You make a good point Senator Moncion, but we had not moved on to the other item, and there was some confusion as to what was happening, so I reverted back and recognized the two senators standing to be fair to what was going on. There was obviously confusion. You make a good point, and it would have been far more difficult for me to make that adjustment had we moved on. Thank you for raising that.
Your Honour, thank you for that, but the reason there was confusion is sometimes you say “all those in favour” and you hear a no, and then you say all those opposed. You didn’t do that. Again, I appreciate you gave us the opportunity — but in order to not have something silly like we just had here on something where we’re trying to collaborate, and we have a point of order on something like this, in the future, Your Honour, maybe we could have you do both — all those in favour and all those opposed — so we are not in confusion as to whether or not we should stand.
Point taken. I will take that under advisement. I don’t think there is any need to make a ruling on it. Thank you for raising it. Senator Moncion, did you have anything else?
I would just like to say that my point of order was not silly, because things were moving according to the usual order. In my view, you did not make a mistake, but I accept that you went back on your decision. However, I have a problem with my point of order being called silly. I feel that it is inappropriate language that diminishes my role as a senator who pays attention to what happens in this chamber.
I apologize to Senator Moncion for hurting her feelings.
I understood the comments made by Senator Plett as referring to the general state of affairs and asking that we have a voice call whenever there is any sense of confusion. I didn’t take it as an insult to you, Senator Moncion.
The Senate will suspend for two or three minutes to await the arrival of the minister.
