Procedure and House Affairs committee  I'll do my best.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. It's a great pleasure to be here, and I'm grateful to have my visit rescheduled so quickly after the tragic events of last week. I hope I can share some useful thoughts about Bill C-518. I've prepared some speaking notes that I hope you have befor

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I'm not aware of any. Of course, the bill was just passed last year by the Nova Scotia legislature. I don't believe there's been an opportunity to enforce it. I believe the answer to that question, sir, is no. I haven't heard of constitutional objections being raised to it. I thi

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Regarding the provisions of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms that I referred to in section 11, there are two that deal with retroactivity, but it's clear that they're focused on the criminal context—the imposition of criminal liability retroactively, the alteration of a sentenc

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Of course, I think that is a risk. That is a disadvantage of that approach. But when one considers the alternatives and the long traditions of Parliament having autonomy through parliamentary privilege to decide the appropriate forms of discipline for members in a particular cont

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I think you know that you can never lure a law professor into saying absolutely certain, so I'm not going to fall for that.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I'm about as confident as one can possibly be at this point in time in the evolution of the law. I take your point that it may well be that the law will evolve in that direction, but it would have to require legislation that shocked our consciences in a much more profound way.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Well, we like to think you still are.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Absolutely.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Even if there's not a constitutional issue.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Yes.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I agree. I think that's very helpful. The change that I suggested, drawing on the Nova Scotia bill and making the application of these amendments to criminal conduct that has occurred prior to the coming into force of the bill, is, as you suggested, valuable. I think it's valuab

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Of course we can imagine some kinds of behaviour by a member that might not amount to a criminal offence but would nevertheless put Parliament in a terrible light in the public eye. It seems to me that the current focus of concern, and not just with members of Parliament but also

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I'm not sure if there is a simpler answer.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I think they are very similar. The differences in the wording are modest, and there are a couple of important differences. One is that language I referred to earlier, making it clear that it applies to a conviction that occurred either before or after the coming into force of the