End of Parliamentary Session: The Recap
Plus Conservatives pass a record-breaking number of bills, my letter to the integrity commissioner, and the Liberals are hiding the cost of their failed CanSino deal
End of Parliamentary Session: The Recap
On Wednesday, Parliament rose for its scheduled summer recess. Over the last 6 months, the Liberals have mismanaged the Parliamentary schedule. This means that in the 11th hour, the Liberals used procedural tools to force the shutdown of debate and rushed through legislation with less scrutiny than the legislation deserved.
At 1:30 am on June 22nd, Bill C-10, the Liberal internet censorship bill, passed its third reading with the support of the Liberals, NDP, and Bloc. Third reading is the final step before a law is sent to the Senate. The Conservatives were the only party that voted against Bill C-10. The Liberals took extraordinary steps to gag MPs from defending freedom of speech and to ram the bill through without fulsome debate. Conservatives in the Senate are working to ensure that the bill does not become law; however, if it does, a Conservative government will repeal it.
Using another procedural tactic, the Liberals ended debate on Bill C-12, their empty net-zero carbon emissions legislation, and forced the legislation through Parliament. Conservatives proposed reasonable amendments to the bill that were voted down by the Liberals and other opposition parties. These amendments would have strengthened the law by adding representation to the board charged with informing the Minister whether the federal government was on track. It would have also clarified the sources of net carbon sinks to the calculations. Sadly, these were ignored. Additionally, the environment minister has already appointed the advisory board before the bill had been passed demonstrating the Liberal government was not interesting in listening to opposition viewpoints and suggested changes in good faith.
On the last day before Parliament rose for the summer, the Liberals passed their budget with the Bloc and NDP supporting the government. The budget is likely to be the last law that the Senate passes as it was pre-studied at their committees and should see rapid passage because of that work.
It seems like the Liberals are laying the groundwork for a fall election, so it’s likely that any bills not passed by the Senate before Tuesday will not become law.
You can follow along with the status of any bill at the link below
Conservatives Pass Record Number of Private Member’s Bills
Since Parliament came back in September, a record-breaking five conservative private member’s bills have been passed by the Senate and the House of Commons. Selection for debate on private member’s bills is determined by a random lottery, and less than three percent of private member’s bills become law. Passing five bills within a few months is a tremendous feat.
Bill C-208 introduced by MP Larry Maguire from Manitoba makes it easier for parents to transfer farms and small businesses to their children.
Bill C-210 introduced by a fellow Calgary MP Len Webber allows Canadians to sign up to be organ donors on their income tax forms.
Bill C-218, introduced by MP Kevin Waugh from Saskatchewan legalizes single-event sports betting which will crackdown on illegal gambling.
Bill C-220, introduced by MP Matt Jeneroux from Edmonton establishes a two-week compassionate care leave for families following the death of a sick family member.
Bill C-228 introduced by MP Richard Bragdon from New Brunswick which establishes a federal framework to reduce recidivism.
Conservative legislators have passed one-third as many laws as the federal government which is you exclude the emergency pandemic related legislation passed 14 laws. That is quite a parliamentary record.
The Drug-Price Regulator, the PMPRB, Must Be Investigated
It has been a month since I released internal government documents detailing the PMPRB’s disdain and bias against patient advocacy groups and industry, allocating $56,000 in taxpayer dollars to counter what they labeled a “disinformation campaign” from these groups along with parliamentarians. My colleagues and I have directly questioned the health minister, asking if she will rein in the PMPRB for abandoning its duty of neutrality. However, our concerns have fallen on deaf ears, so I decided to act. On June 18, I sent a letter to the Integrity Commissioner requesting an investigation into the conduct of the PMPRB as it relates to the misuse of taxpayer dollars for partisan means and called for the delay for the implementation of the PMPRB guidelines until the public is assured that decisions made by the regulator take the best interests of patients and other stakeholders into account. The PMPRB is a quasi-judicial body, and like a Court, it must maintain neutrality and a lack of bias towards any particular side as it seeks to stop excessive pricing of patented medicines in Canada. It has both a legislated duty and its staff are required to maintain impartiality in the conduct of their duties – they have obviously not done so. I looked forward to a response from the Commissioner on whether an investigation will be launched.
The Liberal Government is Hiding the Cost of the CanSino Deal
For over a year now, the Ottawa Liberals have been unable to answer direct questions about their botched vaccine procurement deal from CanSino Biologics, a pharmaceutical company with close ties to the Central Commission in the People’s Republic of China. On October 29th, 2020, Minister Bains was questioned about how much money was sent to CanSino and the People’s Republic of China in the deal. He responded, “the company and government in question did not receive any funding from the Government of Canada.” On May 12th, Prime Minister Trudeau stood in Parliament and said, “We signed seven vaccine contracts with vaccine makers from around the world and not one of them was from China.” We now know that those statements were false. Documents I received from the National Research Council under freedom of information legislation outline a contract signed between the NRC and CanSino for a collaboration on the COVID-19 vaccine that involved a “non-refundable, non-creditable” nominal fee, estimates of the project’s cost, and how much the NRC would contribute towards the deal, all blacked out. Amazingly, the deal was signed by the current president of the Public Health Agency of Canada, who just received an official reprimand in the House of Commons for failing to turn over documents related to the firing of Chinese scientists from the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg.
Why is the Liberal government covering up for the Chinese Communist Party and sending them taxpayer dollars to receive absolutely nothing in return?
Resuming Debate: Every Other Week Over the Summer
Because Parliament has risen for the summer, Resuming Debate will now come out every other week instead of weekly. The next issue will come out on July 10, 2021. Happy Canada Day!
I am a bit disappointed you haven't responded to my comment from June 27. Are we trying to "resume debate" or not?
Thanks for this summary. Could you please explain why you voted against the Bill banning conversion therapy?