Emergency Debates

Introduction

The Standing Orders provide Members with an opportunity to give their immediate attention to a pressing matter by moving a debatable adjournment motion. The matter must relate to a genuine emergency and, if the request for a debate is granted, the House is permitted to forgo the usual 48-hour notice period. A specific rule governing such requests that the established business of the House be set aside was first formalized in 1906. From October 1986 to November 1988, the operative Standing Order was numbered 29; from November 1988 to the end of Speaker Fraser's term, it was numbered 52.

Pursuant to Standing Order, the private Member or Minister of the Crown seeking the emergency debate must give the Speaker written notice of the matter he or she wishes to propose for discussion at least one hour prior to rising in the House to make the formal request. At the conclusion of the ordinary daily routine of business, any Member who has filed an application with the Speaker rises to ask the Speaker for leave to move the adjournment of the House to debate the issue outlined in the application. The Member then makes a brief statement and no discussion or argument is allowed in the presentation. The Speaker, taking into account the actual text and intent of the Standing Orders, and the weight of practice, then decides on the application.

In the year after Speaker Fraser was elected to the Chair, the rules governing Emergency Debates changed in a key respect. Prior to June1987, after the Speaker decided whether the matter could be debated, the House still had the authority to refuse to grant leave for the emergency debate. Following amendments to the Standing Orders adopted in June 1987, that procedure was eliminated altogether. From that point, without being bound to give reasons for his decision, the Speaker alone determined whether or not an emergency debate would be held.

During his term, in deciding whether or not the request for the emergency debate should be granted, Speaker Fraser was bound not only by past precedents, but had to take into account the remarks made by Members on the rule on two occasions. On October 7, 1991, Members called for a review of the applicable Standing Order, in terms of text and circumstances and the meaning of emergency; and again on February 4, 5, and 6, 1992 called for a different understanding of the criteria for Emergency Debates. Speaker Fraser's comments following the February 1992 discussion are included in this chapter.

This Speakership is a period rich in requests for Emergency Debates: the Speaker had to decide on 149 specific cases. The nineteen decisions in this chapter were selected to demonstrate the operation of the rule: to show occasions when leave was granted and refused; to illustrate the rule that the Speaker is not bound to give reasons for his decisions in this respect; to illustrate Speaker Fraser's attempts to explain the intricacies of this particular rule to the Members and to the public; to illustrate his attempts to determine the general sense of the desire of the

House to participate in an emergency debate; and to clarify peripheral procedural issues, such as the effect of a motion to move to the Orders of the Day on applications for Emergency Debates, and the issue of renewal of notice.