Reading Time: 2 minutes Disponible en français. Refugees are people who flee their countries because of a well-founded fear of persecution. Once refugees arrive in another country and seek asylum, international law protects them from being sent back to face serious threats. Of course, not… Read More ›
Reading Time: 2 minutes Disponible en français. After each decennial census – the federally run count of Canada’s total population that occurs every 10 years – the number of members of the House of Commons and the representation of each province are adjusted according… Read More ›
Reading Time: 2 minutes Disponible en français. For about 150 years, the term “omnibus bill” went without a firm definition in the procedural rules of either the Senate or the House of Commons. Often when omnibus bills were introduced, questions arose about their nature,… Read More ›
Reading Time: 6 minutes Disponible en français. Following Royal Assent, a federal bill becomes an Act of Parliament and is printed as a chapter in the Statutes of Canada. However, the provisions in that Act do not produce legal effects until they have come… Read More ›
Reading Time: 5 minutes Disponible en français. In June 2017, the Government of Canada released its most recent defence policy statement: Strong, Secure, Engaged: Canada’s Defence Policy (SSE). SSE outlines Canada’s defence priorities for a 20-year period. In the 2022 federal budget, the government… Read More ›
Reading Time: 5 minutes Disponible en français. In June 2022, the Minister of Public Safety announced that all members of Parliament are to receive mobile duress devices, or “panic buttons.” This was in response to threats and safety concerns that are on the rise for… Read More ›
Reading Time: 5 minutes Disponible en français. On 8 July 2022, a Canadian parliamentarian [in French] was elected president of the Assemblée parlementaire de la Francophonie (APF) for a two-year term. The APF is the parliamentary arm of what is referred to as the “institutional… Read More ›
Reading Time: 2 minutes Disponible en français. The distribution of legislative powers among the various levels of government is a key feature of federalism. To guide this distribution, the Constitution Act, 1867 divides legislative powers between the Parliament of Canada and the provincial legislatures. These powers are… Read More ›
Reading Time: < 1 minute Disponible en français. The COVID-19 pandemic forced many legislatures around the world to adopt or expand their use of digital technologies in order to continue exercising their core functions of legislating, studying issues of public policy, scrutinizing governments and representing… Read More ›
Reading Time: 2 minutes Disponible en français. In the Canadian parliamentary context, English and French enjoy equality of status and use. In fact, there are a number of constitutional and legislative provisions governing the use of both official languages in Parliament. These provisions, which have evolved over the… Read More ›