Procedure and House Affairs committee  Thank you for inviting me. I haven't benefited from having been in a constitutional law class, or any class, so I'm learning from Eric's comments, as I've learned from the comments of the witnesses who have appeared before you. My comments were drafted right after I was invited

Procedure and House Affairs committee  That was a suggestion by the clerk, Mr. Walsh, and I thought it was quite innovative. I thought he gave you a number of good ideas there. Of course, and this is just my understanding—I have to defer to constitutional lawyers and other constitutional experts—what you put in your

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I'll respond. Mr. Reid raised the issue of the last two prorogations. They were very different, of course. The last one, the most recent one, was a slam dunk. The one that was really contentious was the first one. This one stirred up a hornet's nest because it was perceived by

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Thank you. I'm trying to recollect the question.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  These two prorogations were very, very different, except that this one was really a slam dunk. Ned Franks said--and I shared this with Scott Reid outside--and I was struck by this comment, that the Constitution is what happens. He also cited a case in King Charles in the 1600s.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  You know that you just raised all these very heavy terms: democracy, accountability, deference. Where to begin? I don't share the same view of what democracy is. Democracy isn't something you define in terms of elections or not. It's something you experience, you feel, you sense

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I looked him up. His name is Robert Hazell. Canada is not his specialty. This quote appeared in a Canadian Press report, and it appeared last year... No, it appeared this year, after this second prorogation.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Yes.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I simply haven't seen the issue come up. I teach a very large first-year course now. It's at the second-year level. It's called Canadian democracy. The textbook is over 600 pages. The word “prorogation” appears once in it, and it's not defined. It simply says that the Governor Ge

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Okay. If you read my paper, it was essentially written before you started to meet. I'm not as familiar as you are with parliamentary procedure and the Standing Orders, and I'm not a lawyer. I thought the only way these things would count would be in an election when they're mad

Procedure and House Affairs committee  No, it's not time limited. Russell made a very good point that it's not going to count if one person, especially the Prime Minister, has the confidence and exempts himself from it. But if you can get all of the party leaders to agree this is how things will work after an election

Procedure and House Affairs committee  You only lost 22 days on this most recent one. I saw that point made by Mr. Lukiwski in the May 3 issue of The Hill Times. The point is this. What happened to your committees? Why was the House prorogued?

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I don't agree because of what's happened. I want to avoid the crises we've had.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  You're raising the question of how much... As Professor Cyr says, we have a minimalist Constitution, in terms of what's written. Compared with the British, it's maximalist, and the reason we had to write a Constitution, even though we said we wanted one similar in principle to th

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I am skeptical about this. A number of you were in the House in 2005 when you tried to bring down the Martin government. You all insisted this was a confidence matter, and they said no, it was attached to a committee's report and therefore was a procedural motion. The people wh