The past few weeks have brought bewildering changes to our society, as governments worldwide seek to slow the spread of the coronavirus and mitigate its health, social, and economic impacts. The Canadian response has already generated the largest ever expansion in government activity and spending during peacetime.
We are all learning to muddle through and keep working despite these changes—and that includes our elected Members of Parliament, who together face an enormous disruption to their usual methods of engaging with citizens, reviewing legislation, and scrutinizing the government.
While adaptation is required in these exceptional times, democratic institutions should nevertheless continue to uphold their fundamental functions of scrutiny, transparency, and representation. Recognizing the increased potential for abuses of democracy, Samara Centre researchers are monitoring international and Canadian legislative bodies to see how they fare under the strain of COVID-19.
On March 13, Canada’s Parliament bent its own rules to enable emergency government spending by instantly passing Bill C-12. Last week, when Parliament reconvened briefly to pass the COVID-19 Emergency Response Act (Bill C-13), Canadians saw their democratic institutions stretched to the limit.
It is the Samara Centre’s analysis that, while there were some missteps and lessons learned, Canada’s parliamentary institutions did not buckle under the pressure.
Click here to read a detailed analysis of Parliament’s actions on March 13 and March 24 to 25.
The Opposition opposed:
Political parties cooperated in good faith:
Innovations were embraced:
Government initially went too far in limiting parliamentary oversight:
Oversight measures are complicated and incomplete:
Power was even further concentrated:
Representation was particularly weak:
Scrutiny was strictly limited:
Transparency was abandoned:
Plan for the worst:
Go remote:
Show your work:
The past few weeks have brought bewildering changes to our society, as governments worldwide seek to slow the spread of the coronavirus and mitigate its health, social, and economic impacts. The Canadian response has already generated the largest ever expansion in government activity and spending during peacetime.
We are all learning to muddle through and keep working despite these changes—and that includes our elected Members of Parliament, who together face an enormous disruption to their usual methods of engaging with citizens, reviewing legislation, and scrutinizing the government.
While adaptation is required in these exceptional times, democratic institutions should nevertheless continue to uphold their fundamental functions of scrutiny, transparency, and representation. Recognizing the increased potential for abuses of democracy, Samara Centre researchers are monitoring international and Canadian legislative bodies to see how they fare under the strain of COVID-19.
On March 13, Canada’s Parliament bent its own rules to enable emergency government spending by instantly passing Bill C-12. Last week, when Parliament reconvened briefly to pass the COVID-19 Emergency Response Act (Bill C-13), Canadians saw their democratic institutions stretched to the limit.
It is the Samara Centre’s analysis that, while there were some missteps and lessons learned, Canada’s parliamentary institutions did not buckle under the pressure.
Click here to read a detailed analysis of Parliament’s actions on March 13 and March 24 to 25.
The Opposition opposed:
Political parties cooperated in good faith:
Innovations were embraced:
Government initially went too far in limiting parliamentary oversight:
Oversight measures are complicated and incomplete:
Power was even further concentrated:
Representation was particularly weak:
Scrutiny was strictly limited:
Transparency was abandoned:
Plan for the worst:
Go remote:
Show your work: