Bill C-38 is not yet law

[c9]

I'm very pleased, as are many of you, that Bill C-38 passed the House of Commons last night. The vote was 158-133, which means that not only did it win by 25 votes, but even if everyone who was away had voted against it, it still would have passed by 8 votes. Not really a landslide, but human rights are consistently hard to win majority approval for, in most countries.

But it's not law yet! In Canada, when a bill passes the House of Commons, it must then also be passed by the Senate. After that, it awaits Royal Assent in the form of a signature by the Governor General. Incidentally, the Senate can pass things first and then send them to the House.

The Senate is currently two-thirds Liberal, and in Canada the Governor General does not act against the Prime Minister's wishes except in very extreme circumstances. So neither of those steps is in doubt, but the Senate has all the same processes and committees as the House, so we have First Reading, Second Reading, Committee leading to Report Stage, and the Final Third Reading. It's possible for bills to be tied up in the Senate for months, but the current rumour is that things will go very quickly. From a correspondent in London with ears on the Hill:

It will go through 1st and 2nd reading immediately, possibly today, and then be sent to a Senate committee for review. The expectation is the committee will return the bill for 3rd reading early next week, with a possible vote by the middle of the week.

The Senate has fewer rules allowing closure, but Jack Austin, the Gov house leader in the senate was making clear he would use time allocation of the debate in the Senate was not producing anything new -- that is, anything other than obstruction and delay.

So the GG could have it by next week, probably at the latest.

It all depends on what happens today.

Will we have equal marriage by Canada Day? Highly unlikely. By August 1st? Almost guaranteed.

Downside: this leaves time for Spain to win the bronze, so to speak, and become the third country to really allow equal marriage everywhere in law. But with the protests there, maybe it will be slowed down. Hard to tell.

Comments

[skaughty.livejournal.com]

Think the 4th of July, but without the colour blue..

[rebelprince26.livejournal.com]

a ha! :) when is it?

[c9.livejournal.com]

July 1st. The Dominion of Canada was formed from several different British colonies on July 1, 1867, so on that day we celebrate Canada Day.

[c9.livejournal.com]

Before 1867, there was Upper Canada and Lower Canada, which technically speaking were two different countries (more like colonies). Also, Nova Scotia, which was later broken up into present-day Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island. It's all a very incestuous past.

There have been ancestors of Canadians living on this land as British and French subjects for longer than there were in the USA! :)

[c9.livejournal.com]

Really, Canada and the US are among the oldest of countries. We think of certain places as being very old, but even the country of Italy as it currently exists is younger than Canada. :)

But yeah, realistically, the European-based countries of North America are very young. Too bad the First Nations never put up customs checkpoints, or they'd get a lot more respect from the world!

[c9.livejournal.com]

In very broad strokes, I would agree. But even within Canada there are several distinct societies, so within North America I would expect at least ten or so major groupings...

[c9.livejournal.com]

One addition: England decided to allow local legislatures in the provinces, especially in Lower Canada, as a way to appease them as well. The legislatures were mostly appointed, and mostly pointless too!

Did you know that one of the articles of the USA Declaration of Independence is a whiny complaint about how big Québec is? :)

[c9.livejournal.com]

Here's the actual text: For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies.

The big complaint was the system of Civil Law (as opposed to the more common English practice of Common Law) being retained after Lower Canada was put under final British rule.

From http://www.law.indiana.edu/uslawdocs/declaration.html

[c9.livejournal.com]

Hell, the US had invasion plans on the books until 1935.

[nihilicious.livejournal.com]

I'd have to look up the dates ... but don't forget that they started off as "Upper Canada" and "Lower Canada", but then became "Canada East" and "Canada West" on unification (1840?)