LEGISLATION LANGUISHES

Question: What do you get when you cross law-making with cryogenics?
Answer: The federal Liberals' legislative agenda, which has remained in the
deep freeze during the past two years.

As Canadians wait for Prime Minister Paul Martin to put the current session
of Parliament out of its misery and call an election, several bills held
over from the government of former prime minister Jean Chretien continue to
languish in the limbo of lost laws.

The delayed bills include measures to decriminalize marijuana, tighten
child-pornography laws, reform aboriginal governments and protect
whistleblowers. Although all these proposed laws are well-intended, they
are also sources of bitter controversy and vehement dissent. That's one
reason why they've died on the order paper again and again. There's another
reason as well — unfortunate political timing.

For example, the proposal to make the possession of small amounts of
marijuana a misdemeanour punishable by a small fine was put forward while
the supporters of Mr. Chretien and Mr. Martin were sparring over the timing
of Mr. Chretien's departure. This infighting left Liberal MPs with scant
energy to push through a bill condemned by anti-drug conservatives on both
sides of the Canada-U.S. border.

These same conservatives supported the child-pornography bill, but it ran
afoul of the civil-libertarians, who considered it too intrusive.

Mr. Martin effectively terminated the aboriginal-government legislation
before he was elected Liberal leader last fall, when he said he would not
support it as prime minister. First Nations groups also opposed the bill.

Although the whistleblower bill attracted widespread support, that was not
enough to prevent it from falling victim to the freeze.

In the run-up to the election, the government was more concerned with
minimizing the impact of the sponsorship scandal and doling out goodies
from coast to coast than in pushing legislation through the Commons and
Senate. The final months of Mr. Chretien's regime may have been a lame-duck
sitting, but the first few months of the Martin government has been a
convocation of the walking wounded. Any hope of passing bills that have
been on hold for years will have to wait until after the election.

Admittedly, the significance of these proposed laws ranks a level below
such priorities as health care, infrastructure, national security and the
economy. But the concerns they address are far from frivolous, and they
will not recede into the background, no matter how often the legislation
falls victim to political chance and circumstance. It is past time to act
on these matters. Marijuana-law reform was first proposed more than 30
years ago, and the situation in some aboriginal communities is scandalous.

Hopefully, the next government will be able to muster the determination,
and the votes, to end the Bill Chill and pass legislation that is long overdue.