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A number of contentious government bills currently before the House of Commons will die when the Conservatives suspend Parliament, meaning the legislation would likely have to be reintroduced in the new session.

Government bills currently still in the Commons include legislation on Senate reform — including term limits and process for electing senators — that has been referred to the Supreme Court of Canada, as well as legislation that would put restrictions on offenders who cannot be held criminally responsible for their actions because of mental illness.

The government has not said whether it would recall the House of Commons for a few days to pass the bills before suspending Parliament.



Prime ministers in the past have regularly prorogued Parliament between elections to launch a new government agenda.

While opposition parities acknowledge proroguing in the middle of a four-year mandate is a normal use of prime ministerial power, they believe Harper and the Conservatives are simply looking to delay the return of the House of Commons to avoid the fallout from the Senate expenses scandal.

“He’s running away from accountability,” said NDP deputy leader Megan Leslie.

She said Harper avoided the House of Commons near the end of the spring sitting to avoid questions on the Senate expenses scandal that embroiled the Prime Minister’s Office and led to the resignation of Nigel Wright, Harper’s former chief of staff.

“It’s a pattern with him, where if he wants to avoid accountability, if he wants to avoid those uncomfortable questions, then he just hits the prorogue button.”

Leslie notes the majority Conservative government could easily table and pass a motion to reinstate the current bills and resume debate in a new Parliament on the legislation that would die when the session is terminated.

Harper came under fire in 2008 for asking the governor general to prorogue Parliament to avoid a non-confidence vote that could have toppled his minority Conservative government.

He prorogued again the following year, halting House of Commons committee hearings into the treatment of Afghan detainees and killing a number of pieces of legislation.

Prorogation jumped into the headlines again last fall when then-Ontario premier Dalton McGuinty, embroiled in a number of scandals, resigned as Liberal leader and called a halt to business at the provincial legislature.