Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s decision to prorogue Parliament after announcing his resignation plans means several key pieces of legislation are now dead.
Prorogation suspends all Parliament business – including committees – and terminates all bills that have not yet received royal assent. Bills can be reintroduced in the next session of Parliament but the process starts from scratch with a first reading.
Governor General Mary Simon agreed to prorogue Parliament until Mar. 24, the latest date until which the government could remain suspended before it runs out of money without a supply bill being passed.
Here are some of the twenty-six bills now terminated due to prorogation.
Bill C-63: The Online Harms Act
The Online Harms Act was a bill that would have amended the Criminal Code to add penalties for “harmful content online,” including speech deemed to promote “hate” and internet child pornography.
The Liberal government recently announced that the bill would be split into two parts to expedite the part of the bill which deals with non-consensual pornography and child exploitation while leaving the more controversial aspects of the bill up for debate.
Several civil liberties organizations in Canada have raised alarm bells about the bill’s provisions on online speech and their potential to chill free expression. Many aspects of the bill were criticized, including imprisonment for hate speech, the ability for anyone to make a report which could result in overwhelmed tribunal requests and long trials, and penalties for those found to reasonably be expected to post “hateful” content online in the future.
Taxpayer advocates also warned the bill would establish an online hate enforcement bureaucracy which the parliamentary budget officer said would cost at least $200 million.
The bill received its first reading and was in the process of receiving its second reading before Parliament prorogued.
Bill C-65: An Act to Amend the Canada Election Act
After being bounced to the standing committee on procedure and House affairs, the electoral participation bill was also in its second reading. Bill C-65 aimed to make it easier to vote via mail-in or “special ballot” and to penalize electoral interference and the spread of “disinformation” during elections.
Within the bill was a provision to allow the Chief Electoral Official to alter the day of an election if it was found to be in conflict with a day of cultural or religious significance.
The bill also would give two additional days for advanced voting, an easing of restrictions including certifying special ballots that include just a party name rather than the name of a candidate.
Bill C-293: The Pandemic Prevention and Preparedness Act
The Pandemic Prevention and Preparedness Act is a private member’s bill introduced by Liberal MP – and now cabinet minister – Nathaniel Erskine-Smith. The bill was in its second reading in the Senate after passing through the House of Commons before prorogation terminated it.
The bill would have mandated that the minister of health establish a comprehensive national plan to tackle the next pandemic. It would create an advisory committee to assess the country’s pandemic response and analyze the “health, economic and social factors” relevant to the pandemic.
Food and agriculture experts and stakeholders criticized the bill for permitting public health officials to close facilities such as food manufacturing plants they consider to be “high-risk.” Sylvain Charlebois, the author of the “Food Professor” blog, raised the alarm over this bill’s potentially devastating impact on Canada’s agricultural sector.
Bill C-413: An Act to amend the Criminal Code (promotion of hatred against Indigenous peoples)
The residential school denialism private member’s bill introduced by NDP MP Leah Gazan aimed to make it a criminal offence to “willfully promote hatred against Indigenous people by condoning, denying, downplaying or justifying the Indian residential school system in Canada.”
The bill, which completed its first reading, would deem “misrepresenting facts” about residential schools a criminal offence.
One historian warned that the bill would chill debate on Canada’s residential school system, imposing sanctions and lengthy human rights tribunal trials, which many historians or experts with contrary views to the government might find not worth their time.
Bill C-372: An Act respecting fossil fuel advertising
In the name of climate action, Bill C-372, a private members bill put forward by NDP MP Charlie Angus prescribes hefty fines and jail time for anyone found to be promoting Canada’s oil and gas sector.
The bill would have banned fossil fuel ads, fining scofflaws up to $1.5 million or sending them to jail for up to two years. The bill attempts to frame the oil and gas industry in the same way as the tobacco industry was when its own advertisements were banned.
If passed, anyone found to be “falsely” promoting fossil fuels would be subject to a $750,000.
The bill prohibits advertisements which claim “the practices of a producer or of the fossil fuel industry would lead to positive outcomes in relation to the environment, the health of Canadians, reconciliation with Indigenous peoples or the Canadian or global economy.” Which leaves the door open to preventing Indigenous communities from promoting resource development projects.
It was introduced last February and received its first reading. The bill was placed on an Order of Precedence on June 17, 2024 but had yet to receive its second reading before prorogation.