Inside Politics

UPDATED - Ad Watch: "Scrappedtheregistry.ca"? Not so fast, Conservative Party.

by Kady O'Malley Posted: December 19, 2011 10:36 AM Last Updated: December 19, 2011 11:17 AM
When it comes to the legislative-work-in-progress that is the bill to dismantle the gun registry, it seems that the Conservative Party isn't going to let the government's still somewhat inexplicable decision to leave the bill in question languishing on the Order Paper in pre-report stage stasis daunt its perennial penchant for free coverage.

On Sunday afternoon, the party sent out a press release to tout the new address for a not-technically-new website scraptheregistry.ca, which was originally created back in 2010, when it was used to muster up support for Bill C-391, ostensibly a private members' bill put forward by backbench MP Candice Hoeppner, which eventually went down to defeat in the last parliament.

The website has now been rebranded as scrappedtheregistry.ca -- which was registered in October, for those of you who care about that sort of thing -- despite the fact that the registry has not, in fact, been scrapped, and to suggest that it has could be seen as a wee bit presumptive - and possibly even a contempt of Parliament, according to former Ontario attorney general Michael Bryant.   

(Interestingly, the script for the accompanying radio ad that the party claims will be rolled out this week characterizes the registry as "almost gone," thus nicely skirting any potential complaints of misleading advertising.)

Back in 1989, then-Commons Speaker John Fraser thwapped the Progressive Conservative government of the day for running newspaper advertisements that suggested the adoption of the GST was a fait accompli months before it had even passed the House, let alone the Senate. 

In his ruling, in which he found no technical breach of privilege, Fraser warned that he would "not be so generous" if such a controversy presented itself in future: 

I expect the Department of Finance and other departments to study this ruling carefully and remind everyone within the Public Service that we are a parliamentary democracy, not a so-called executive democracy, nor a so-called administrative democracy.  

[...] I believe it is in the interest of our parliamentary system of government to have a clear statement from the Speaker which cannot be misinterpreted either in debate or by a vote. A vote on this issue might not support the very important message which your Speaker wishes to convey and which I hope will be, well considered in the future by governments, departmental officials and advertisement agencies retained by them. 

This advertisement may not be a contempt of the House in the narrow confines of a procedural definition, but it is, in my opinion, ill--conceived and it does a great disservice to the great traditions of this place. If we do not preserve these great traditions, our freedoms are at peril and our conventions become a mockery. I insist, and I believe I am supported by the majority of moderate and responsible members on both sides of the House, that this ad is objectionable and should never be repeated.

In this instance, it is, of course, the governing party, not the government, who is responsible for the ad in question, but that may not be enough to stave off a privilege claim when the House returns in January, since third parties can, in theory, be found guilty of a prima facie breach of privilege as well, although given the numbers in the Chamber, any such finding would be unlikely to be upheld by its occupants. 

Then again, perhaps the whole thing is a cunning plan -- a procedural booby trap that the government hopes will lure the opposition into raising a ruckus when the House resumes sitting after the winter break, thus putting the registry - and its imminent demise - back in the headlines. 

In any case, stay tuned! 

UPDATE: Courtesy of the Library of Parliament by way of the Speaker's Office, the complete text of the Fraser decision: 

Tags: blackberry jungle, conservative party of canada, fun with domain forwarding, gun registry, privilegewatch in the making