Introduction

The Selected Decisions of Speaker Gilbert Parent is the seventh in a series of volumes which brings together in a comprehensive collection the significant modern rulings of the Speakers of the House of Commons. Earlier volumes contained the decisions of Speakers Lucien Lamoureux (1966-1974), James Jerome (1974-1979), Jeanne Sauvé (1980-1984), Lloyd Francis (1984), John Bosley (1984-1986) and John A. Fraser (1986-1994). The present volume contains 85 decisions, covering the period from 1994 to 2001 when Gilbert Parent presided over the House.

Mr. Parent was first elected to Parliament in 1974 and was re­elected in 1979 and 1980. He lost his seat in the 1984 general election, but was re-elected in 1988, 1993 and again in 1997. Between 1977 and 1981 he served as Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministers of Veterans Affairs, Labour, and State (Sports). He was elected Speaker at the beginning of the 35th Parliament and re-elected at the beginning of the 36th Parliament. Mr. Parent was the second Speaker to be elected by secret ballot of his peers in the House of Commons.

The 1993 general election saw the defeat of the Progressive Conservative government and the formation of a new Liberal government. When the 35th Parliament met, members were presented with a new political landscape. Five political parties were represented in the House: the Liberal Party, the Bloc Québécois (BQ), the Reform Party, the New Democratic Party (NDP) and the Progressive Conservative (PC) Party. The Bloc Québécois and the Reform Party, both with new political philosophies and objectives, emerged from the election as the dominant opposition parties, while the NDP and PCs were reduced to nine and two members respectively.

The unexpected opposition configuration gave rise to various challenging issues. Neither the New Democratic Party nor the Progressive Conservatives had the 12 members required to give them recognized party status in the House. Meanwhile, the Bloc Québécois was the largest party in opposition to the government with 54 seats and was designated the official opposition. The Reform Party had only two fewer seats and the slight difference in the number of seats between the two parties placed them in a competitive situation in the Chamber. In the course of the Parliament, due to the loss of a Bloc seat to the Liberals in a by-election following the death of a Bloc member and the resignation of the leader of the Bloc, the Honourable Lucien Bouchard, the two parties came to have an equal number of seats. The Reform Party thus asked the Speaker to rule on the status of the leader of the BQ as leader of the official opposition. Speaker Parent’s ruling was to maintain the status quo with the leader of the Bloc Québécois as leader of the official opposition.

The general election of 1993 also resulted in the influx of 205 new members eager to challenge how the work of Parliament was done, and this during a time of severe fiscal restraint. Backbench members from all parties demanded that greater importance and more resources be given to the work of private members. There were calls for changes to the administrative services as well as to the rules and procedures of the House. These demands led to a wide variety of matters being raised in the House on which Speaker Parent was required to rule.

The 36th Parliament saw all five parties in the House enjoying official party status, with the Reform Party as the official opposition. The major issue upon which Speaker Parent was called to rule during this Parliament shifted to the report stage of bills. Both the Reform caucus and the Bloc caucus used the House’s report stage procedures to delay the passage of government legislation by proposing hundreds of amendments. This was particularly the case with Bill C-9, An Act to give effect to the Nisga’a Final Agreement and Bill C-20, An Act to give effect to the requirement for clarity as set out in the opinion of the Supreme Court of Canada in the Quebec Secession Reference (The Clarity Bill). This strategy required rulings on the admissibility of the amendments as well as recorded divisions that kept the House sitting around the clock for a number of days. It was during this Parliament that a member of the Bloc moved a motion of censure against the Speaker that was debated and ultimately withdrawn.

Also during the 36th Parliament, the House saw the publication of House of Commons Procedure and Practice, tabled in the House by Speaker Parent on February 9, 2000. As the Speaker noted, this seminal work provided members with a multitude of references to the rules of procedure and the precedents and practices of the House explained in a clear and thorough manner.

The House over which Speaker Parent presided was in some ways politically more complex than that presided over by his predecessors. In addition to this politically charged atmosphere, Speaker Parent also presided over a House that was willing to experiment with its rules and practices; for example, referring bills to committee before second reading, allowing oral questions anticipating orders of the day, and trying new procedures to make the work of private members have more impact. Some of these experiments were successful, and some were not.

Each of the selected decisions in this book is presented in a uniform format. This format includes a brief account of the procedural or political context surrounding the issue being raised, followed by a summary of the resolution of the matter. The entire text of the decision as delivered in the House by Speaker Parent or one of his fellow presiding officers is then presented, along with any necessary footnote references. Each decision within a given chapter has a descriptive header that indicates the primary procedural issue being decided; in some cases, a postscript explaining a pertinent outcome or subsequent action is also included. The decisions are grouped within 10 chapters, each of which begins with a brief introductory passage. The sequence of decisions is organized by order of date delivered, within groupings of like subject matter headings.

There are a number of search methods by which particular decisions can be located. At the back, the volume contains both a chronological listing of all decisions and a detailed analytical index. In addition, readers are encouraged to refer to the introductions to the various chapters and to scan the descriptive headers located at the top of each decision to determine if the subject matter or even a particular aspect of that subject matter would encourage them to view the entire decision. It should be remembered that this volume, like others in the series, represents a selection of key decisions. In all, Speaker Parent and his fellow presiding officers were required to adjudicate on almost 500 occasions during the time covered by this volume.

Many people have contributed to the completion of this volume. I want to acknowledge their contribution and thank them for their professionalism and their tireless efforts in pursuit of excellence in this series. My thanks go to the staff of the Table Research Branch who worked so assiduously to prepare the manuscript; the table officers involved; the staff of Parliamentary Publications who indexed and assisted with the publication the text; the Parliamentary Translation Services who ensured a felicitous version of the work in both official languages; and the House of Commons Printing Services who coordinated with the publication of the volume.

Ottawa, 2008

Audrey O’Brien
Clerk of the House of Commons