By Denis Carmel
OTTAWA – With only minutes to go until the end of the meeting, the Heritage Committee finally completed the clause-by-clause consideration stage of Bill C-10.
Now the amended bill goes to the House of Commons where it will be moved by Government House Leader, Pablo Rodriguez, who indicated it is one of three pieces of legislation that the Liberals will prioritize in the next few weeks – and that he would be using every parliamentary tool at his disposal to prevent the Conservatives from blocking the bills.
He also called on the Bloc Quebecois, the NDP and the Greens to “overcome” the Conservatives, who he accuses of obstructing the adoption of the bill.
The bill is now in his court!
However, on the Senate side, where C-10 will head once it passes the House, it appears the government would have to use another time allocation scheme three times: on second reading, at the Senate committee stage and at third reading in a way that doesn’t appear to have been tested, since the Senate has broken down in various factions, away from the traditional two-party system.
Sources who study the Senate and asked not be quoted said the probability of passage within the appropriate timeframe, factoring in the summer break and a fall election, is very low.
Also, the Senate doesn’t seem to have been formally notified of the government’s intention to accelerate the process in the red chamber, too.
Update June 14th: A time allocation motion passed in the House of Commons on Monday afternoon and the bill almost went through third reading, meaning Bill C-10 was nearly adopted at next two stages in the House of Commons and was set to be sent to the Senate. However, a point of order was raised late to try and send it back to committee and when we went to bed, they were still debating it in the House of Commons.
