Procedure and House Affairs committee  Yes, you're right. Until there is a constitutional amendment under section 41 of the Constitution Act, 1982, the powers and the office of the Governor General really cannot be affected. So she has the ability to exercise her reserve powers either to agree or disagree. But what I think has happened with the Governor General over many decades, if not centuries, is that he or she is acutely aware of the rules of conventions.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Well, no; there was the King-Byng affair, but it was a different situation.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  It's my opinion that the reason why the Speaker would have that power is that, as we saw just yesterday, he is in effect the guardian, so to speak, at least in terms of principles, of the rights and privilege of you, the elected members of the House of Commons. So that core foundational right of elected members of the House of Commons is actually...as I mentioned, on two occasions the Supreme Court of Canada has said it's part of the Constitution of Canada.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Thank you.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I will answer in English, because I can express myself better.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Yes, yes.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Maybe I am... eligible to sit on the Supreme Court of Canada? At any rate, to answer the first part of your question, as I mentioned to Madam Jennings, with regard to the disincentives that were suggested, it's certainly possible. But I think the task for the opposition, and for the other parties too....

Procedure and House Affairs committee  The Speaker, as we've seen on several occasions now, has a lot of powers to advise that things be carried out, and this could be one of them. Yes, you could have a formal resolution. The other thing, which came up in the previous session, is that resolutions, if they're structured properly, can have as much power as standing orders.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Right.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  It's essentially to stop future types of prorogation. Absolutely it wouldn't have helped in the last one, because there was no real understanding of how to deal with the situation. Maybe we should have learned after the first one, in 2008, but nothing happened after the first one in 2008.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  It would be the combination of standing orders plus supporting legislation to create a binding conventional rule that would allow the Speaker to basically say to the Governor General: you have the power under your reserve powers to refuse the prorogation. There would be no need for a constitutional amendment in that case.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Yes. It's impossible anyway, because essentially you would need the consent of all the provinces.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  There is academic disagreement. The actual constitution talks about the “office of the Governor General”, which would definitely require unanimity under article 41. But I think the Clerk mentioned the possibility of distinguishing the “powers” of the Governor General as opposed to the “office” of the Governor General.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Actually, I don't disagree with him. I think what I was saying in the Ottawa Citizen was misunderstood, and I wish it hadn't been edited the way it was. Committees can do whatever they want. They can basically sit in between sessions, as the Afghan committee did during the prorogation.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  As I said, because there's no parliamentary privilege, the chances of that happening are actually almost zero. In addition, why would the Committee of the Whole sit? If, as happened with the Afghan committee, there was a specific issue that they wanted to deal with.... I was asked to give my opinion on whether there was a clear breach of privilege by the refusal to hand over on the detainee issue, and I felt that I could brave the risks of not having parliamentary privilege and appear before the committee, and I did.