Bill C-11 and the role of Parliamentary Committees

This past week, there were significant developments in Canadian military law that proceeded without much fanfare.  And the reason for the lack of publicity may have been the manner in which Bill C-11 was yet again altered.

On Monday, 25 May 2026, Bill C-11, An Act to Amend the National Defence Act and other Acts (but which is often characterized by its short title, the "Military Justice Modernization Act") passed Third Reading in the House of Commons. 

This Bill had been the subject of significant debate and examination in Committee (specifically, the House of Commons Standing Committee on National Defence).  One of the key results of the Committee hearings was that complainants and victims of sexual misconduct would be given greater voice in whether allegations relating to offences of a sexual nature would be prosecuted in the civilian criminal justice system or in the military justice system.  Significant amendments were made to the proposed Bill.

To be fair, the amendments were hastily, and imperfectly, drafted.  In part, that is what comes from trying to improved flawed policy changes.  No matter the amendments, if select premises reflect flawed reasoning, those flaws will remain.  It calls to mind images of "sows' ears" and "silk purses".

The amendments reflected a broad consensus among all opposition parties (but not the party in government).  The fact that there was consensus across representatives of the Conservative Party of Canada (CPC), the New Democratic Party (NDP), and the Bloc Québécois (BQ) is not an insignificant factor.  These parties have widely divergent platforms.  But they all agreed that the proposed legislation needed improvement.  And these suggestions were borne out of significant and diverse testimony before the Parliamentary Committee.

Of note, these amendments were offered when the governing Liberal Party of Canada (LPC) was a minority government.  Over the past few months, the LPC has obtained a thin majority government through three recent by-elections and several notorious incidents of CPC (and one NDP) Members of Parliament (MP), "crossing the floor" to join the LPC.  [An earlier by-election was held last August in the CPC stronghold of Battle River-Crowfoot, Alberta, in which the Leader of the CPC, Pierre Poilievre, ran in the seat vacated by one of his MPs, after Poilievre had lost his seat in the General Election at the end of April 2025.] 

The recent by-elections resulted in the LPC maintaining seats in the three contested constituencies, but, in total, the LPC has managed to establish a thin majority (due to the floor-crossings).  Of the 343 seats in the House of Commons, the LPC now holds 174.  The minimum necessary to form a majority government is 172.  [After the General Election, a little over a year ago, the LPC held only 169 seats.]

After the LPC obtained a majority, they moved to reconfigure the distribution of Committees, including that of National Defence, and undid the Committee-recommended amendments to Bill C-11.

Following these changes, the BQ, the NDP, and the Green party voted with the LPC government in support of Bill C-11, in what can be described as its "original" form.

The day after the Third Reading in the House of Commons, 26 May 2026, Bill C-11 received its First Reading before the Senate, followed by the Second Reading, which was completed on 28 May 2026.  The Bill is sponsored in the Senate by Senator Rebecca Patterson, a retired Rear-Admiral and a frequent speaker on matters of military interest.  It now passes to the committee stage, much as is done when a Bill is before the House of Commons.

The role of the Senate is to provide "sober second thought" regarding legislation originating in the House of Commons.  Although there is a bloc of Senators that identifies as the "Independent Senators Group" or "ISG", they are, in effect, the senators aligned with the LPC.  There are other groups, styled "Canadian Senators Group" or "CSG", and the "Progressive Senate Group" or "PSG".  These were senators largely (but not solely) appointed on the advice of LPC governments. 

In effect, the government has a commanding majority in Canada's appointed Senate (although there are no senators who identify as belonging to the LPC).  The Senate has a maximum of 105 seats.  The Senate website presently lists 95 sitting senators.  Of these senators, 82 were appointed on the advice of LPC governments, and 80 were appointed on the advice of the LPC since that party came to power in November 2015.  Since November 2015, Senators have been appointed based upon a process that the government characterizes as a merit-based process using recommendations from the Independent Advisory Board for Senate Appointments.  [People may read into that characterization what they will.]

In any event, by custom, even if the government did not have a commanding majority in the Senate, the role of the Senate, when considering Bills originating from the House of Commons, is principally inquiry and to recommend changes to legislation based upon that inquiry and "sober second thought".  It would be exceedingly rare for the Senate to block legislation.

As an aside, referring to this as a "modernization" Act can be viewed as a bit disingenuous.  In effect, it is a retrograde policy development, which returns the Canadian military justice system, in certain respects, to circumstances that pre-dates Bill C-25, which was enacted in 1998, and which largely came into force in 1999.

For a view - and certainly not the sole view - regarding Bill C-11 and it's shortcomings, consider:

Rory Fowler, "Bill C-11 and the Standing Committee on National Defence" (10 February 2026), online: Law Office of Rory G Fowler/Blog <https://roryfowlerlaw.com/bill-c-11-and-the-standing-committee-on-national-defence/>.