Keep tabs on Parliament.

• #123 Failed C-306 That the Bill be now read a second time and referred to the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs.
• #122 Passed C-11 That, in relation to Bill C-11, An Act to amend the Copyright Act, not more than two further sitting days shall be allotted to the consideration at second reading stage of the Bill; and that, 15 minutes before the expiry of the time provided for Government Orders on the second day allotted to the consideration at second reading stage of the said Bill, any proceedings before the House shall be interrupted, if required for the purpose of this Order, and, in turn, every question necessary for the disposal of the said stage of the Bill shall be put forthwith and successively, without further debate or amendment.
• #121 Passed C-19 That Bill C-19, An Act to amend the Criminal Code and the Firearms Act, {as amended}, be concurred in at report stage [with a further amendment/with further amendments] .
• #120 Failed C-19 That Bill C-19 be amended by deleting Clause 29.
• #119 Failed C-19 That Bill C-19 be amended by deleting Clause 28.
• #118 Failed C-19 That Bill C-19 be amended by deleting Clause 24.

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A long goodbye party June 27th

At sixty-eight o'clock and after 445,000 words, last week's marathon House sitting ended with the passage of back-to-work legislation for postal workers.

The House is now on summer break, and starts back up again on September 19th.

Neverland, Ontario June 25th

As I type this, it's a rainy Saturday morning in Montreal. But on Parliament Hill, it's still Thursday.

The NDP is holding a filibuster to delay back-to-work legislation to end the postal lockout. Because the Conservatives can force a vote before Thursday's sitting ends, the NDP aren't letting it end. So, according to the official House transcripts, it is currently 58 o'clock on Thursday.

Parliament's hardworking transcribers and translators have published debates through yesterday morning so far. As they publish more, I'll update the debates on this site. But the "latest House transcript" date above will remain June 23rd. Because in Ottawa, it looks like it's gonna be June 23rd for a long time.

41, here we come May 24th

After an election ostensibly fought over the role of Parliament, we're back with a majority government.

Parliament resumes for a quick spring session on June 2nd. While your faithful Parliamentary website operator is currently in southern Turkey—where, let me tell you, getting a dotted i out of the keyboards is dıffıcult—, the MP list has been updated, and we should have the latest goings-on as of June 3rd.

Parliament is closed March 25th

With the Liberal motion of non-confidence that just passed, the only Parliament this site has ever known—the fightin' 40th!—is no more. Or, at least, it will be as soon as the wheels of procedure turn and the Gov-Gen says so. I'm already nostalgic (especially as it's nearly this site's one-year anniversary).

(I may add a little bit of election-related information, but for the most part I won't dedicate this site to election coverage; that's already handled quite thoroughly by the news media and some great sites.)

There'll be one last automatic update tomorrow morning, as Hansard is published. And then: see you on the other side.

I sometimes talk about things other than open data! March 18th

So this column seems to have turned into somewhere I rant about open data every few months. This site's very much alive, and of course there's lots of activity in Parliament—two privilege rulings! But I muzzle my opinions here on every subject save open data, so that's what ends up strewn all over the home page.

The site's had a bunch of maintenance and grooming lately, though nothing flashy; perhaps the most visible change is that Senate bills are now listed. Some larger changes are in the works; expect an unveiling in a month or two.

And I will take a paragraph here to repeat that this is a volunteer, open-source project, with all sorts of items on the to-do list—text analysis! traduction en français!—to which the sufficiently tech-savvy are heartily encouraged to contribute.

data.gc.ca March 18th

Today, the federal government opened the doors on its pilot-project open data portal: data.gc.ca.

(What's open data, you ask? See this site's about page for a blurb.)

I'll point you to powerhouse open data advocate David Eaves' blog post, which pretty much exactly mirrors my thoughts on the subject. While the portal itself isn't about to stun anyone with its utility or comprehensiveness, it's only just been launched, and I'd much rather encourage a pilot project than criticize it. And just the fact that it exists is great: it says that the government recognizes the utility of open data, that departments have both permission and infrastructure for sharing data.

But there's a problem, and it's a really frustrating one. Convincing people that databases are exciting—as I do believe, quite strongly—is enough of a challenge. But lately, I've had to also drone about something truly excruciating: the minutiae of licenses. Data.gc.ca came with a brand-new, and entirely unacceptable, license. It says that the government may, at any time and for any reason, change its conditions and thus make you shut down anything you've built on the data; that you can't use the data in any way which might potentially "bring disrepute to" the government of Canada; that—oh, there's plenty more.

And this is so frustrating because the answer is so clear. The right license to use is one that says, "Here you go. Don't sue us." This has been translated into legalese and dubbed the PDDL. These are, more or less, the terms under which the US and UK and several others provide data. I don't want to have to talk about license conditions; I don't want to have to criticize the government's overtures toward open data; please, let's just get this right and move on. Till then, the current license brings disrepute to the government of Canada.