OPINION
8 Obiter Dicta
Harper and His Many Omnibus Bills
Tracking the various omnibus bills implemented by the Harper
government.
simmy sahdra › news editor
O
mnibus bills: one of Harper’s favourite
tools; used akin to the invisibility cloak
in Harry Potter, as most of the public has
no idea what changes are being made to
many laws which change our daily lives.
Generally, omnibus bills cover a diverse range
of topics, and it is a single document accepted in a
single vote by the legislature. However, because of the
diverse range of topics and the large size, typically
omnibus bills limit openings for debate and scrutiny. For these reasons, omnibus bills create possibilities for laws to be created through an undemocratic
method, and Parliament generally does not have the
ability to have meaningful debates about the issues.
Historically, although this method has been criticized as undemocratic, omnibus bills have been
a useful tool to speed up the legislative process to
implement social change. For example, in 1967 Pierre
Trudeau introduced the Criminal Law Amendment
Act, which decriminalized homosexuality, anal sex
between adults, abortion, and contraception.
However, the current political trend has been
developed by the Harper government to utilize omnibus bills as a tool to bypass the democratic process
to implement bills, which are counteractive to social
change. Marginalized communities have been targeted to a large extent by omnibus bills implemented
by the Harper government. Exploring the operation
of Bill S-7, Bill C-43, and Bill C-24 demonstrates the
negative effect omnibus bills have had on marginalized communities in Canada.
Bill S-7 is also known as the “Zero Tolerance for
Barbaric Cultural Practices Act,” which is generally
intended to bar polygamous and forced marriages.
The Bill amends immigration and criminal laws with
the purpose of keeping polygamists out of Canada,
and preventing women and girls from being married
against their will. This is the perspective and justification being reproduced by the Conservative government to the public.
This Bill has had a great effect on women and
racialized communities, and was heavily criticized
by social justice organizations such as the Schlifer
Clinic and the South Asian Legal Clinic of Ontario
(SALCO) as “another example of the government
failing to listen
to survivors, and
targeting racialized communities
for exclusion and
deportation from
Canada.” The Bill
was also criticized as reproducing institutional barriers to marginalized communities reporting violence
and having access to support. SALCO condemned
the Bill as victims would be less likely to report
forced marriages because of their internal struggle
with placing their family at risk. Secondly, “due to
increased stigma, perpetrators of forced marriage
will be more skilled at hiding their attempts at forcing marriages, and the unfortunate result of creating
these barriers is that victims will go deeper underground, instead of seeking support.”
The criticisms formed by advocacy organizations
ê Photo credit: yorktonthisweek.com
such as the Schlifer Clinic and SALCO demonstrate
the lack of cohesion and cooperation between the
government and advocacy organizations in forming this Bill. As a result, the Bill was produced with
very little understanding of what the people who are
affected by the Bill truly need. Instead the Bill reproduces the stigma of gender violence being connected
to the “other.” The Schlifer Clinic stated, “the Act
betrays a flawed ideology that locates violence against
women as a “cultural” issue which only occurs in
some communities, and ignores statistics and women’s lived reality that shocking levels of violence
against women occurs every day in Canada across
cultures.”
Moving on to Bill C-43, which deals with the prevention of access to social assistance for refugees,
sections 172 and 173 allow provinces to deny social
assistance to refugee claimants, and others who lack
permanent residency st at u s.
Certain groups
would not need
to meet the residency requirement to be eligible
for social assistance. These include Canadian citizens,
permanent residents, victims of human trafficking
with a temporary resident permit, and refugees who
have been recognized as such by the Immigration
and Refugee Board (IRB). It is the categories of people
who are not listed that would be the most adversely
affected; namely, refugee claimants who have filed
their claim at a port of entry or inland at a Citizenship
and Immigration Canada (CIC) office.
Many advocates have found that Bill C-43 demonstrates the “cruel and unusual treatment of refugees and migrants in Canada to have hit a new high
“Marginalized communities
have been targeted to a large
extent by omnibus bills . . .”
water mark under this Conservative government