‘Someday, we’ll have someone who dies as a direct result of that,’ MPs call for ending all-night Commons votes

By Peter Mazereeuw

‘This is just not right. And it would not be tolerated, if you did this to an animal, you’d get in trouble with the law,’ says outgoing Liberal MP Frank Baylis.

MPs are once again calling for changes to the Standing Orders that govern business in the House, warning that all-night Commons voting puts a serious strain on their health, and the parliamentary secretary to the government House leader says it could kill an MP one day.

”We will have literally hundreds of votes. I think it’s absolutely ludicrous and it’s unhealthy to force Members of Parliament to sit around the clock for 30, 40 hours, standing in their place, in order to vote,” said Liberal MP Kevin Lamoureux (Winnipeg North, Man.), parliamentary secretary to Government House Leader Bardish Chagger (Waterloo, Ont.), who has served in the House since 2010. “It’s just not healthy. Someday, we’ll have someone who dies as a direct result of that, as a Member of Parliament. That will happen. That sort of behaviour has to come to an end.”

“You’re breaking every labour code,” said rookie Liberal MP Frank Baylis (Pierrefonds-Dollard, Que.), who has decided not to run for re-election.

“If you have a bad back, this highly aggravates it. If you have bad knees, it highly aggravates it. If your heart’s stressed out; there’s so many things. This is just not right. And it would not be tolerated, if you did this to an animal, you’d get in trouble with the law,” Mr. Baylis said.

The House has held three overnight voting sessions since 2015. They are only possible under certain circumstances in the House, such as when the estimates are tabled, and are typically triggered when opposition parties wish to protest or draw attention to an issue.

The last marathon vote, in March, lasted for 30 consecutive hours, including 257 rounds of votes. Each vote requires MPs to stand for several minutes until they are recognized. The Conservatives triggered the voting to draw attention to the SNC-Lavalin scandal.

The opposition Conservatives also triggered a marathon voting session of more than 20 hours in March 2018, to protest the government’s refusal to allow Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s (Papineau, Que.) national security adviser, Daniel Jean, to testify publicly about Jaspal Atwal, previously convicted of attempted murder, being invited to a reception with the prime minister, and another 12-hour overnight vote in June of that year, to push the government to release details of how the carbon tax would affect Canadians.

Mr. Baylis, 56, said there were several reasons he was choosing not to run for re-election, including his health.

“This job is extremely draining,” he said. “Even if we were well-run, it would be a tough job, but the way we run ourselves is ridiculous. We’ve had three votes all night long, and thank God I’m not unhealthy, but I know a lot of people who, it’s really messed up their health. They might have medical conditions that have been highly aggravated because of it. This is unacceptable, these voting at all hours, and the happenstance changing of our schedules all the time. People need routines.”

full story at https://www.hilltimes.com/2019/07/01/mps-call-for-change-to-house-rules-doing-away-with-all-night-votes-some-day-well-have-someone-that-dies-says-veteran-lamoureux/206169