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Page 6 September 3, 2018 • Law timeS www.lawtimesnews.com The fall agenda for Trudeau BY KADY O'MALLEY T here are few, if any, more hackneyed columnistic clichés than to point out that a week is a long time in politics, but that doesn't make it any less true. In fact, you could make a pretty good argument that it's even more accurate an assessment of the ever-shifting power dynamics and real-time breaking news cycle than was the case when Britain's then-prime minister Harold Wilson first came up with it back in the mid-1960s, which is why there's little alternative but to deploy it as an all-purpose caveat when attempting to predict what the future — or, at least, the next few months — might bring. So, with that on the record, it appears that Team Trudeau is preparing to once again defy precinct-wide expectations by not pulling the plug on the current parliamentary session in advance of its scheduled mid-September return. There is, of course, always the possi- bility that the government is even now quietly drafting the boilerplate for a pre-election speech from the throne. But given the swiftness with which even a hint of such surrep- titious undertakings would hit the Hill gossip circuit, it should be classified some- where between slim and none — which, coinciden- tally, puts it just a notch ahead of that snap election call that more than a few pundits were predicting ear- lier this summer. In any event, assuming — notwithstanding all of the above — that the Liberals are not, in fact, planning to reboot their legis- lative agenda, it's entirely possible that MPs will spend much of the fall sitting contending with the same bills — and, for the government, the same tricky parliamentary dynamics — that were dominating the Hill before the summer recess. Given, for instance, the recent fo- cus on the apparent rise in gun crime, particularly in Canada's big cities, it's a good bet that Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale's bid to strengthen the firearms licensing system, as well as im- pose new record-keeping requirements on retailers, may be boosted from moderate to high pri- ority, at least as far as the ur- gency in shuttling it through to royal assent. If, however, he's hoping to perform a last-minute re- write to address some of the specific concerns that have come up this summer — in- cluding but not limited to the renewed push for a full ban on handguns within ur- ban areas — he and his parliamentary strategists should be prepared to engage in a little procedural fancy footwork. As the bill has already made it to third reading in the House, any further amendments will have to be initiated in the Senate, which, as Goodale and his colleague are now only too aware, can be as tricky to predict and impossible to control as the weather. The same goes for his proposed overhaul of Canada's national security and anti-terror laws — which, in a rare move, was sent to committee before sec- ond reading. Meanwhile, the Liberals' much self- touted bid to "modernize" Canada's election laws by bringing in new mea- sures to restrict and reveal contribu- tions and spending by third parties hasn't even made it back to the House from committee. Given that, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's reluctance to devote a signifi- cant chunk of ministerial — and prime ministerial — time and resources to cobbling together a new throne speech with so many items still cluttering up his government's to-do list suddenly seems to make considerably more sense than proroguing Parliament solely so he and his team could kick off the fall sit- ting with a brief outpouring of proce- dural pomp and ceremony. And at least this way, when he finally goes ahead and does so in January, he'll ideally be able to add a few more bullet points under the "Promises Kept" sub- head. LT uKady O'Malley is a member of the par- liamentary press gallery in Ottawa and writes about politics, procedure and pro- cess for iPolitics. She also appears regu- larly on CBC television and radio. COMMENT u EDITORIAL OBITER By Gabrielle Giroday ©2018 Thomson Reuters Canada Ltd. All rights reserved. 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Karen Lorimer Managing Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jennifer Brown Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Gabrielle Giroday Staff Writer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Anita Balakrishnan Copy Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Patricia Cancilla CaseLaw Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Leah Craven Art Director . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Phyllis Barone Production Co-ordinator . . . . . Jacqueline D'Souza Electronic Production Specialist . . . Derek Welford Rules of civility T here has been widespread commentary on the so-called death of civility in the modern age. These lamentations often refer to an amorphous golden age — a kinder, gentler time when diverging opinions, even on matters of pressing public policy, did not mean a lack of thoughtful dialogue or mutual respect. The idea of the death of civility has been driven, in part, by the sometimes jaw-dropping statements some people will share in fo- rums such as social media. As opinions polarize, people can struggle with affording oth- ers basic respect, through simple behaviours such as hearing others out, staying away from name-calling and allowing others to express themselves fully. Lawyers and judges are celebrated in wider society for the rules that govern their behaviour with each other and their roles as guides to non-lawyers in navigating problems that arise. And issues around free speech — and the sense of how to express oneself in a civil man- ner — have never been more prevalent. In this issue of Law Times, we report on how Ontario's new anti- SLAPP legislation has been tested in the Court of Appeal, with six rulings released last week, four of which were deemed SLAPP law- suits. The purpose of the anti-SLAPP legislation is to encourage pub- lic dialogue and to stop litigation that tries to quell public discourse. There are feature stories on alternative dispute resolution, which highlight less adversarial ways people can navigate their legal troubles and explain new forums where legal issues can be negotiated or de- termined. In life, we will encounter people who think and act differently than we do. While I do not endorse every action of the late U.S. senator John McCain, I admire his friendship with former vice president Joe Biden. While the two dedicated their lives to opposing po- litical parties, they both agreed that they would not attack each other on the campaign trail or when hammering out issues in the Senate. In fact, they sometimes sat next to each other — to the chagrin of some of the leaders of their respective caucuses. In plain terms — or as a Canadian Indigenous leader puts it — they agreed to come back and sit at the same table. That's the basic contract of civility. To sit, to lis- ten, to speak with respect, even when we diverge. It's a code everyone can use, which is far from dead. LT The Hill Kady O'Malley Kady O'Malley

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