Ottawa

All eyes on the Speaker

At noon today, the Speaker will rule on Elizabeth May’s point of order. Pending that decision, he would then rule as to how the amendments and clause deletions will be handled.

Update 11:34am. Here is the full list of Ms. May’s proposed amendments.

Update 11:40am. A little background on the parliamentary process. Here is the Procedure and Practice chapter on the legislative process (scroll down to “Report Stage”) and here is a specific guide to amending bills at committee and report stage. A 2001 statement by Speaker Peter Milliken on report stage motions can be viewed here.

Update 11:45am. Two more things. Our rough guide to C-38 is here. And the text of Ms. May’s point of order is here.

Update 12:05pm. Speaker Scheer has begun delivering his ruling on Ms. May’s point of order.

Update 12:16pm. Speaker Scheer has ruled that he cannot agree with Ms. May. And, in the absence of rules around omnibus legislation, he cannot set aside C-38.

Update 12:18pm. Now to a decision as to how the House will vote on C-38.

Update 12:23pm. The Speaker has ruled about two dozen amendments—out of a total of 871—out of order.

Update 12:27pm. The Speaker has grouped together the amendments for debate, but it’s not clear to me that the Speaker has ruled as to how many votes will take place.

Update 12:32pm. Correction: The Speaker’s office has released a schedule and, depending on the result of each vote, C-38 will face a maximum of 159 votes. Presuming all of the amendments are defeated, that would seem to be the number of votes.

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