Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Filibuster in NL 6/13/2012

Filibuster is a parliamentary proceeding term that defines when opposition parties keep the house open for many hours continuously as a form of protest towards the tabling of contentious legislation by the governing party.

Access to Information and Protection of Privacy is a field for which i was professionally employed from 2007-2009. With this in mind, i take a keen personal interest in the current state of Bill 29.  The Government has tabled a bill to drastically change the scope of this matter. the opposition feel they are taking steps too far to limit transparency and accountibility.   as of 7 pm tonight, the house has continuously been debating this matter for 55 hours! lots to ask from such a small group of opposition members.  While the Government has authority to end debate and ram the bill through, they feel it is politically correct to allow the debates to run their course. 

technically, the debates won't affect the governments' ability to pass the bill, given their majority; however, the opposition parties have done a good job demonstrating the problems and concerns this bill will bring to citizens and businesses of the province.  as a critic of the bill, i have not only vlogged and tweeted about the matters, but i have personally attended the house in the audience for several hours this week to demonstrate my concerns.

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