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Publication Search User Guide and FAQ

This guide offers a detailed description of how to search Hansard (Debates of the House), Journals, Committee Evidence, and Board of Internal Economy (BOIE) transcripts. See the Publication Search Quick Start Guide for a short introduction to basic searching.

Print version

Select publication to search

Search one publication at a time by selecting its tab: Hansard, Journals, Committee, or BOIE. Enter keywords in the search box. Switching between tabs will automatically transfer the search words and applied filters from one publication to another. Use Clear All to reset the search settings before a new search.

Search and display content in both official languages

To search the content of the Publications in either of the official languages, click Search English content or Search French content located above the search box.

To display search results in both official languages, click Show Both Languages option located above the Refine Your Search filters. The results will appear in two side-by-side columns.

To switch the display language of the page, click Français located in the top right corner.

Boolean operators AND, OR, NOT

Use Boolean operators directly in the search box or use the drop-down Add search criteria option.

In mobile browsers, tap on the Options to access the option.

Three basic Boolean search operators: AND, OR, NOT (use uppercase letters for operators).

Operator Example Results
AND dogs AND cats Text contains both dogs and cats
[ space ] dogs cats Text contains both dogs and cats
OR dogs OR cats Text contains dogs or cats
NOT dogs NOT cats Text contains dogs but not cats
exact phrase “Air Canada” Text contains exact phrase “Air Canada”
Will not find “Air pollution in Canada”

Filters

Refine search results using filters on the right of the screen. Filter options vary depending on the publication being searched. The number appearing beside each filter term indicates the number of items tagged with the term for that specific search. Multiple filters can be applied at the same time on any search.

In mobile browsers, tap on the Filter button to access filters.

Filter: Parliament and Session

Limit search results to time periods: specific dates, Parliaments, or sessions of Parliament. Search publications dating back to 17 September 2001 (37th Parliament, 1st session, sitting No. 79). Subject indexing, which is displayed as Discussed Topic, is only available from the 39th Parliament, 1st Session in Hansard and Committee evidence; the 40th Parliament, 2nd Session in Journals and 19 October 2017 in BOIE. See FAQ to learn about earlier publications.

Filter: Order of Business

Limit search results in Hansard and Journals publications to those presented during a specific segment of the fixed parliamentary agenda. For example, clicking on Oral Question Period will return results recorded only during this segment of the agenda.

Filter: Discussed Topic

Limit search results to a precise, focused subject. Even when this filter is not selected, all words entered in the search box activate both a full-text search and a search of the Discussed Topics. For example, a search for reindeer in the search box will yield results with Caribou, which is the Discussed Topic that has been assigned from a controlled hierarchical vocabulary. A search on a Discussed Topic will return results for that term, as well as results tagged with more specific terms that fall below it in the hierarchy. For example, searching for the broad Discussed Topic Cervidae will display items tagged with the more specific term Caribou.

Discussed Topics are assigned to individual paragraphs within an item. When using this filter, the results will show the chosen Discussed Topic highlighted in orange at the bottom of the item. Click on one of these Discussed Topics to see only those results with that assigned term.

To see all Discussed Topics, use the More option in the Discussed Topic filter on the right of the screen.

To search available Discussed Topics in the pop-up window, enter words in the Discussed Topic filter box. Alternatively, use the drop-down menu in the upper right corner to search Discussed Topics according to groupings: All Discussed Topics, Analytical Subject, Person, Document, Organization. Once the search is complete, use the arrows to sort alphabetically or by number of results.

Filter: Procedural Term

This filter refines search results based on parliamentary rules and procedures used in the House, committees and BOIE. For example, searching for Federal Elections and filtering by the procedural term Opposition Motions will display all instances of the opposition motion debate concerning federal elections.

Filter: Person Speaking

Search by a person’s name, province, or territory they represent, Caucus, or Participation type (committees only).

Results

Understanding search results

The number of search results is displayed in the top right corner. This represents the number of items that match the search query. The results can be further refined using the filters at any time.


An exact search (using quotation marks) is highlighted in yellow within the resulting items. Results include plural and singular forms and different verb tenses of the search terms entered, but these variations will not be highlighted in the text. Only searched terms within quotation marks are highlighted.

Typing in the search box will trigger an autocomplete suggestion from the list of Discussed Topics and Procedural Terms. Choosing to run the search with these suggested terms will return items containing the term as well as items containing all the individual words composing the term.

Interacting with Search Results

Share, view, or favourite an item by choosing from the icons.

Favourites Tab

Create a list of Favourites by clicking on the star icon. A new tab with a blue star will appear. This list contains all selected items.

The selected items can come from any or all of the four publications. This list is dynamic, and it is possible to add results from different searches. Click/tap on the Favourites tab to see the full list of selected items.

To remove Favourites, click/tap on the star beside the result to be removed, or erase all the Favourites at once by clicking/tapping “Clear all favourites”.

Publication Search uses cookies to store Favourites in the user’s computer memory (depending on browser configuration). The user has access to the selected items any time they are using that computer. To share the list of Favourites, navigate to the Favourites tab, copy the URL and send it by email or message.

Saving/retrieving/rerunning searches

Search Options are located directly under the Publications tabs. Once a search is tailored, including Publication, Date range, and other Filters, click Save and give the search a descriptive name. The website uses cookies to store saved searches on the computer, depending on browser configuration.

To retrieve stored searches, click/tap Open in Search Options to activate a dialogue box and select from the list of saved searches.

To delete saved searches, click/tap Open in Search Options and click/tap on the minus icon to the right of the search.

Sharing search results

To share search results, run a search (or open a saved search), copy the URL and send it by email or message.

FAQ

Go to http://www.ourcommons.ca. Click on Parliamentary Business. Click on Search the Debates to view the Hansard, or Search the Transcripts to view Committees.

2001 – present (37th Parliament – current session)

Publication Search searches publications dating back to 17 September 2001 (37th Parliament, 1st session, sitting No. 79). Subject indexing, which is displayed as Discussed Topic, is only available from the 39th Parliament, 1st Session in Hansard and Committee evidence; the 40th Parliament, 2nd Session in Journals and 19 October 2017 in BOIE. (Indexing of Discussed Topics for Hansard and Journals takes 2 business days; Committees and BOIE - 5 to 10 business days.)


1994 – 2000 (35th - 36th Parliament)

A separate Hansard index is available for each of the sessions of the 35th and 36th Parliaments. These indexes cannot be searched at the same time. Go to http://www.ourcommons.ca and Click on Parliamentary Business. Click on House Publications. Click on the calendar. Access each index by clicking on a date in the calendar. (Only dates with green dots in the calendar are indexed, as these are sitting days.) The publication will open for that date and the link to the index is in the top right corner.

Here are direct links to the indexes for these two parliaments:

35th Parliament, 1st session https://www.ourcommons.ca/DocumentViewer/en/35-1/house/hansard-index

35th Parliament, 2nd session https://www.ourcommons.ca/DocumentViewer/en/35-2/house/hansard-index

36th Parliament, 1st session https://www.ourcommons.ca/DocumentViewer/en/36-1/house/hansard-index

36th Parliament, 2nd session https://www.ourcommons.ca/DocumentViewer/en/36-2/house/hansard-index


1867 – 1993 (1st – 34th Parliament)

Search publications from the very first session of Parliament (1867) up to the 34th session (1993). http://www.ourcommons.ca Click on Parliamentary Business. Click on Parliamentary Historical Resources (1867-1993).

Publication Search automatically searches for plural and singular word forms, and different verb tenses. These variations of the exact term entered in the search box will be returned in the results, but not highlighted in yellow. Only the exact term searched within quotation marks is highlighted.

There is no autocorrect for spelling. A search in the text box is not case-sensitive, except for Boolean operators (AND, OR NOT) which must be in upper-case letters.

Enter an acronym in the search box, and the results will include all items with that exact acronym in the text. Depending on the acronym, results will also include Discussed Topic tags for the full name represented by the acronym. For example, a search for AECL returns all items where this exact acronym appears in the item text, as well as items that have been assigned the Discussed Topic term Atomic Energy of Canada Limited.

Using an apostrophe or parentheses in the search box can have unreliable results. Use quotation marks around terms that include apostrophes, or other non-alphanumeric characters, to correct this problem. For example, “Harry’s” will return only results with this exact term.

Search for items that were presented in a language other than English or French. Click on More within the Procedural Term Filter. In the Filter search box, type in language and then select Language other than official language from the Analytical Subjects list. The results are items presented in another language. At the bottom of each item, the named language will appear as a Discussed Topic tag. Click on this tag to retrieve all items tagged with that language. This search will include Indigenous languages. To search for items presented in Indigenous languages only, use the procedural term Indigenous languages in proceedings. It is important to note that only significant text is tagged with these procedural terms

Example 1. Find items presented by Candace Laing in the Agriculture and Agri-Food Committee during the 2nd session of the 43d Parliament.


Example 2. Find items about cheese discussed during Oral Question Period during the 2nd session of the 41st Parliament.

Located at the bottom of the Publication Search page, there are options to save and export searches in different formats.

XML option will export search results in XML which can then be imported into a spreadsheet or database.

CSV option will export search results in plain text which can then be imported into a spreadsheet or database.

For more information see Open Data - House of Commons of Canada (ourcommons.ca)

A search may turn up references to House of Commons Sessional Papers. The Library of Parliament maintains a collection of these Sessional Papers; search the Ex Libris LOP catalogue here and limit results to Sessional Papers. Contact the LOP directly to ask about access to the full documents: info@parl.gc.ca

Need help searching House of Commons publications?

Contact us at indref@parl.gc.ca or 613-992-8976

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