Conservative Canadian Senators Kill Climate Change Bill
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada (AHN) – Unelected Canadian Tory senators killed the climate change bill Wednesday, voting 43-32 against Bill C-311. The senators voted on the bill without even debating on the legislation, which parliamentary experts said was the first time in seven decades that the Senate disapproved a bill without conducting a hearing.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who appointed the Conservative senators, defended the latter’s action because C-311 was “a completely irresponsible bill.” The measure was supported and passed in the House of Commons by Liberals, New Democrats and Bloc Quebecois.
Harper claimed the bill failed to include measures to achieve climate change, except to close parts of the Canadian economy and make thousands or millions of residents jobless. The prime minister said instead of a weak legislation, Ottawa would rather collaborate with Washington on a climate change plan for North America.
With this development, Canadian representatives will have nothing to show when they attend an international climate conference next month in Cancun, Mexico, as 200 nations draft an agreement on climate change.
The Tories washed their hands over the defeat of the bill, saying it was the Liberals who forced a vote on it. The Conservatives said it was Liberal Senator Grant Mitchell, who sponsored the bill in the senate, who called for a vote on second reading, which killed the debate.
The Liberals denied it. They said the transcript was unclear who called for the vote, although they pointed to Tory Senator Gerald Comeau as the one who called for the vote.
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