Thanks for the kind words, everyone!
OK, so here are the answers to some of your questions:
When will C-6 be discussed in the HoC?
Note that, as quoted above, during Question Period on Thursday the
Leader of the Government in the House of Commons herself said that Bill C-6 will be discussed when they come back from their ridings. This person is the one in charge of the government business in the House. So if she says that it'll happen, it'll happen. Because whatever she decides is going to be put on the agenda.
It is therefore very likely if not certain that C-6 will be discussed on Monday or Tuesday after the break (May 29/30).
How long will it take them to discuss in the HoC?
They will probably use two or three sitting days. The opposition can't delay this because the HoC uses time allocation motions to limit debate. However, note that sometimes they don't use sequential days but they mix things up, e.g. Monday C-6, Tuesday something else, Wednesday C-6 and so on. So it might take a week or something because they interrupt for other business.
What will the House decide?
You can assume with a certainty of 99.999999% that whatever the government puts down as a motion will be agreed on by the Liberal majority. So whatever will be on the Order Paper next week regarding C-6 will be what the House will vote for.
Will the HoC simply agree to all Senate amendments?
According to many reports, tweets, news stories etc. this is highly unlikely if not completely certain not to happen. The HoC will accept some and amend others. How exactly is hard to tell at the moment. But expect the due process amendment to be the core issue here.
How long does it take for the bill to get back to Senate?
This is how things went for all other ping-pong-bills this month:
- Let's say the HoC votes to accept some but not all amendments by the Senate on a Monday (just as an example)
- Then on Tuesday the Speaker of the Senate will, under government orders, read the message from the HoC to the senators.
- Then Peter Harder, the government rep in the senate, will move that the bill is put on the orders for the next sitting (= Wednesday)
- On Wednesday, Peter Harder moves that the Senate accepts the compromise offered by the HoC. Then the Senate debates that suggestion.
- In some occasions, the Senate has the vote on the very same day. But for more "debatable" bills (and obviously C-6 is such a bill), they will need several sitting days.
- Then they vote to accept the compromise or to adjust the compromise. It is more likely that they will accept the compromise. It is custom that the Senate "bows" to the will of the elected House that already proposed a compromise based on the initial amendments of the Senate.
Note that the above is just an example using weekdays for understanding. Also note that the Senate rarely sits on Mondays and Fridays. So if the HoC, say, passes the motion on a Thursday, the speaker of the senate will read the message on the following Tuesday (which is the next time the Senate sits) and so on.
Will the bill get stuck in the Senate again?
- Generally speaking, messages from the House of Commons regarding government bills have some of the highest priority in the Senate. As you can see they are usually picked up the very next day.
- The pressure regarding delays by now is very high. Note that the delay tactics used in the fall during second reading could only be used because the other senators were courteous enough to allow it. In fact, the Senate could outright downvote any request to adjourn (= delay) the debate. It is rather unusual but happens sometimes, particularly if the adjournment tactics are overused. So the Conservative Senators can't just delay bills forever or they will antagonize the Senate majority who is in favour of this bill and simply downvote delay tactics.
- Also note that the bill, at least at the moment, includes an amendment that allows minors to apply for citizenship that was championed by a Conservative senator. So there are some parts of the bill now that even some Conservative senators want to get passed.
Does Royal Assent only happen while the Parliament is sitting?
- Someone asked what would happen if parliament passes the law on the very last day before the summer break
- The good news is: The bill still receives royal assent within days (if not on the very same day), it won't just hang around on the Governor-General's table for all of summer. He doesn't take a break on the same day.
- Fun fact: Did you know that while royal assent is usually just given by signature, every now an then, the GG comes to the Senate and sits on the throne, then the bill is held in front of him and he simply gives a single nod with his head? That is actually a legally binding way to give royal assent.
Disclaimer
We all are well aware by now that C-6 is a very special bill. Above I described the regular path such ping-pong-bills take time wise. But don't sue me if in the end this bill has a different run.