Prime Minister Justin Trudeau rises during question period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on May 2, 2023. (The Canadian Press/Sean Kilpatrick)
The year of 2023 was a busy one for federal lawmakers, who passed legislation on a wide array of topics ranging from medically assisted death, to online news and streaming, to bail reform, to gun control.
It was an especially divisive year for the House of Commons, with Conservative MPs heatedly squaring off with Liberal and NDP MPs during Question Period, in committee meetings, and often on social media.
Nonetheless, the number of bills passed was the highest in four years. A total of 29 pieces of legislation were passed in 2023, compared to 21 bills in 2022, 27 bills in 2021, and just 15 in 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic hit Canada.
Right before the holiday break, MPs even pulled an all-night voting marathon. The move was primarily focused on the government’s budgetary estimates, prompted by the Conservatives’ promise to delay Liberal government’s legislation unless it agreed to axe parts of its carbon tax.
Here’s an overview of the most consequential bills that were passed in 2023, and a look at how they might play out next year.
Delay of MAID Expansion
Bill C-39, which became law in March, postponed the eligibility of people with mental health conditions seeking Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) until March 17, 2024. In February 2023, then-Justice Minister David Lametti announced the government would delay MAID’s expansion by one year to “ensure that we move forward on this sensitive and complex issue in a prudent and measured way.”
In March 2020, the House of Commons passed Bill C-7, amending the Criminal Code to allow MAID for Canadians whose natural death is not “reasonably foreseeable.” That bill included several safety guards, such as a minimum 90-day assessment period, a second eligibility assessment by a practitioner with expertise in the condition causing the person’s suffering, and two clarifications of informed consent.
Canada made international headlines for its relaxed euthanasia laws in 2023 after several Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) veterans said they had been offered the procedure unprompted. According to Statistics Canada, the number of MAID deaths in Canada increased by 31.2 percent in 2022, accounting for 4.1 percent of all deaths in the country that year.
The Liberal government has indicated it is open to extending the pause on MAID’s expansion even further into 2024, with Justice Minister Arif Virani claiming in December that cabinet will “evaluate [MAID expansion] comprehensively to make a decision whether we move ahead on March 17, or whether we pause.”
Legislation for Online Streaming
Pascale St-Onge, Minister of Canadian Heritage, rises during Question Period on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, on Nov. 24, 2023. (The Canadian Press/Spencer Colby)
Bill C-11, also known as the Online Streaming Act, was passed in April. It amends the Broadcasting Act to bring platforms like Netflix, Spotify, and Facebook under the regulating authority of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). The Liberal government is currently consulting with the Canadian public while it decides on the regulations the CRTC will implement.
While then-Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez said back in May that the bill would give Canadian artists and content creators a “level playing field” compared to American competitors and media outlets that have a farther reach, critics warned the legislation’s open-ended language could allow the CRTC to regulate individual content creators on sites like YouTube and Spotify.
Those fears were seemingly confirmed for some in September after the CRTC announced that all online streaming and podcasting services in Canada with $10 million or more revenue would have to register before Nov. 28. But in October, CRTC CEO and Chairperson Vicky Eatrides said individual users and content creators would not be regulated by Bill C-11.
While the CRTC’s first consultation of the Online Streaming Act examined which online streaming services need to provide basic information, the second looked at basic conditions of service, the third is investigating its regime for fees, and the fourth will look at the contributions that players need to make to support Canada’s broadcasting system.
Funding for Media
The passage of Bill C-18, the Online News Act, immediately backfired for the Liberal government in June after social media giant Meta announced it would block Canadians’ access to news on its platforms. Bill C-18 requires companies like Google and Meta to negotiate deals with Canadian media outlets and pay them for the content they link to on their websites and platforms.
The legislation also gives the CRTC the power to require media organizations to follow a “code of ethics” to be eligible for news-sharing negotiations with digital platforms.
Google had also announced it would remove links to Canadian news on its platforms in Canada due to the bill’s passage, calling it “unworkable” and full of “structural issues.” But Google did not follow through with the threat, and in November it said Ottawa had addressed the “core issues” of the bill in exchange for $100 million in funding to Canadian news outlets. The arrangement was close to what Google had asked for at the outset, which Ottawa had resisted.
Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge recently said Ottawa is “still looking at everything that we can do to try to bring Meta back to the table.” The Heritage Department has estimated that the Online News Act could bring in $172 million per year from Google and $60 million from Facebook.
Bill on French Language
In May, legislation was passed that amends the Official Languages Act to recognize that French is the only official language in Canada that is under threat and must therefore be protected in federal workplaces. Known as Bill C-13, the legislation introduces immigration in the Official Languages Act, focusing on its importance to the vitality of francophone minority communities outside Quebec.
The bill also gives more tools to the Commissioner of Official Languages to provide Canadians working in federally regulated private businesses in Quebec the ability to work and be served in French. The bill was passed with the goal of increasing education, childcare, and healthcare services in French across Canada.
A previous version of the bill from 2021 was never passed. Montreal MP Anthony Housefather was the lone Liberal MP to vote against the legislation, which he said could harm Quebec’s anglophone minority, while Liberal MP Sherry Romanado abstained from voting.
Bail Reform
Bill-48, which makes changes to Canada’s bail system, received Royal Assent in June and it set to come into effect on Jan. 4, 2024. The legislation will target repeat offenders in Canada who have used weapons such as knives and bear spray, as well as those repeatedly accused of intimate partner violence.
Justice Minister and Attorney General of Canada Arif Virani speaks during question period in Ottawa on Dec. 1, 2023. (The Canadian Press/Adrian Wyld)
A new reverse onus provision is also added to these offenders, meaning they will be detained while awaiting trial unless they can prove they are not a flight risk or a public safety threat. The bill also clarifies the term “prohibition order” in reverse onus provisions for weapons offences, requiring courts to consider an offender’s history of violent convictions when making a bail decision, and commit to a parliamentary review of the previous measures after five years.
During any bail decision, courts must now verify that they have considered how the decision could impact community security and “vulnerable overrepresented populations.”
The Liberals introduced the bill in June in response to provincial leaders and police chiefs calling for bail to be made more difficult for repeat violent offenders. The Liberals passed Bill C-5 in 2022, eliminating 20 mandatory minimum sentences on gun and drug offences to address “systemic racism in Canada’s criminal justice system.”
The Tories have repeatedly promised to implement a policy of “jail, not bail” for repeat violent offenders if they form a government, and have rejected some experts’ assertions that denying criminals a chance to access bail would be unconstitutional.
Tightened Firearms Restrictions
Gun control legislation Bill C-21 received Royal Ascent and became law in mid-December, despite the efforts of gun control groups, some provinces, and the federal Conservatives to block its passage. The controversial legislation aims to ban “assault-style” firearms that are semi-automatic, have centre-fire ammunition, and hold a magazine of six or more cartridges.
The bill also has a red flag provision, which will allow people to flag concerns about someone’s gun ownership if it may pose a risk to themselves or others. The legislation also increases the maximum penalties for gun smuggling and trafficking from 10 years to 14 years in prison, and enshrines into law the current freeze on handgun transfers put into place by the Liberal government back in August 2022.
Back in February, the Liberal government was forced to back down from a previous version of the bill that would have added hundreds of firearm types already exempted under the 2020 Orders in Council—some of which are used for hunting—to the prohibited list.
Conservatives have accused the Liberals of going after law-abiding hunters and target-shooters while ignoring criminal gangs predominantly responsible for gun violence.
