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Culture War Roundup for the week of February 27, 2023

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The PMO could plausibly do something like this via Order in Council -- in which case you'd have a similar palaver around getting somebody with an interest in the matter to bring it to the SCC. (Although I think the provinces could request a reference hearing pretty easily, assuming they administer aspects of student loans here too; I don't actually know how that works?)

For an example of how this plays out over time you need only look to the Trudeau government's recent gun banning activity; firearms (as property) legislation is plausibly not even in Federal jurisdiction, so (1990s Liberal) government found a loophole around 'public safety' which they exploited to pass incremental legislation. (Partially but not substantially reversed the next time Conservatives had power)

Next comes Trudeau, who's power is too shaky to get anything controversial through parliament -- so he issues an OIC banning various things, including ones which the previous (90s) legislation specifically sets out as 'not bannable by OIC'. (firearms with a valid hunting/sporting use case)

While this is wending it's way towards the SCC (which I give about 50/50 for finding some loophole to weasel out of obeying the 90s Act; they are very liberal but don't like to appears as totally insane puppets) the Liberal government notices that the next time Conservatives beat them they can just reverse the OIC; their solution is to try sneaking the OIC terms in to a bill mostly about handguns at the amendment stage. Their argument: "It doesn't matter that we are adding unrelated provisions to this bill after it's been debated in the House; these things are already banned by OIC."

So I guess the point is that the parliamentary system doesn't really prevent end-runs by the executive (equivalent); much as President TruSantis could reverse the Biden decision in 2024, but with no effect since the loans would be already cancelled, Pollievre (or whoever) could reverse the OIC, but it won't matter if the Liberals have got the guns into their smelter in the meantime.

I mean, they do seem to be trying to legislate it because they see the OIC as legally vulnerable.

Right, which makes "well these things are already banned under the OIC" an odd argument for why it's OK to tack them onto an unrelated bill in committee just before third reading!

After all, if the next Conservative government wants to, they can repeal the statute just as easily as they could the OIC (assuming they command a majority of the Commons).

No, they don't need a majority to reverse an OIC. (just as Trudeau didn't need on to introduce it)

The conservatives are unlikely to win a majority, and even if they do the political capital around reversing a bill (which has a bunch of other unrelated stuff that the House already debated and agreed to) is much different from just writing a new OIC.