Small P and Large P Politics and the F Word

This post focusses on exploring the various groups that testified to the Justice Committee regarding Bill C-36 the Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act or formally An Act to Amend the Criminal Code in response to the Supreme Court of Canada Decision in the Attorney General of Canada v. Bedford and to make consequential amendments to other Acts. The Justice Committee meetings ran from July 7, 2014 to July 15, 2014, hearing from 44 organizations and a number of individuals and undertaking a clause by clause review before passing the amended legislation on to report state. Report stage and third reading is scheduled for the fall when Parliament returns from its summer break. This is part of a concerted effort on the part of the Harper Government to pass this legislation quickly illustrated by the Peter Van Loan’s motion to allocate time “of not more than five further hours” for the second reading.   In the testimony to the committee there is a clear divide betw...