Routine Proceedings / Petitions

Subject-matter beyond jurisdiction of Parliament

Journals pp. 591-2

Debates p. 7174

Background

On October 23, Mr. McGrath (St. John's East) presented a petition dealing with broadcast advertising in American programming directed exclusively at children and distributed on Canadian cable systems. The next day, the Speaker expressed strong reservations as to the acceptability of the petition even though it had met the requirements as to form. He agreed to hear comments from Mr. McGrath before making a decision. For his part, Mr. McGrath sought to obtain House consent to refer the petition to the Standing Committee on Broadcasting, Films and Assistance to the Arts, so that the Chairman of the CRTC could appear and explain why he had chosen to ignore the committee's recommendations in this matter.

Issue

Can the House receive a petition on a matter which comes under the jurisdiction of another body?

Decision

No. The petition cannot be received. [By unanimous consent, the petition was inserted into the Debates as if it had been read by the Clerk.]

Reasons given by the Speaker

A petition must relate to a matter over which Parliament has control. In a recent precedent, a matter which had, by statute, been allocated to a public corporation was judged to be beyond the authority of the House and a petition which requested interference by the House was rejected. In the present case, the grievance refers to a matter over which jurisdiction has been delegated by Parliament to the Canadian Radio-Television Commission, and therefore the petition cannot be considered.

Sources cited

Journals, February 16, 1956, p. 163; July 16, 1973, pp. 479-81 (Standing Committee on Broadcasting, Films and Assistance to the Arts, Second Report).

Debates, June 7, 1972, p. 2921.

May, 15th ed., p. 814; 18th ed., p. 795.

Dawson, W.F., Procedure in the Canadian House of Commons, (Toronto, 1962), p. 241.

References

Debates, October 23, 1973, p. 7127; October 24, 1973, pp. 7173-5.