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The House sometimes alters its normal schedule of sittings to accommodate special events or ceremonies. These “special” or “unusual” sittings have included: sitting for the sole purpose of attendance at a Royal Assent ceremony; sitting for the purpose of electing a Speaker; conducting a secret sitting; and sitting to hear addresses by distinguished visitors.
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December 30, 1941 |
Winston Churchill, Prime Minister, Great Britain |
June 16, 1943 |
Madame Chiang Kai‑shek |
June 1, 1944 |
John C. Curtin, Prime Minister, Australia |
June 30, 1944 |
Peter Fraser, Prime Minister, New Zealand |
November 19, 1945 |
Clement R. Attlee, Prime Minister, Great Britain |
June 11, 1947 |
Harry S. Truman, President, United States |
October 24, 1949 |
Pandit Jewaharlal Nehru, Prime Minister, India |
May 31, 1950 |
Liaquat Ali Khan, Prime Minister, Pakistan |
April 5, 1951 |
Vincent Auriol, President, French Republic |
November 14, 1953 |
Dwight D. Eisenhower, President, United States |
February 6, 1956 |
Sir Anthony Eden, Prime Minister, United Kingdom |
March 5, 1956 |
Giovanni Gronchi, President, Republic of Italy |
June 5, 1956 |
Achmed Sukarno, President, Republic of Indonesia |
March 4, 1957 |
Guy Mollet, Prime Minister, French Republic |
June 2, 1958 |
Theodor Heuss, President, Federal Republic of Germany |
June 13, 1958 |
Harold Macmillan, Prime Minister, United Kingdom |
July 9, 1958 |
Dwight D. Eisenhower, President, United States |
July 21, 1958 |
Kwame Nkrumah, Prime Minister, Ghana |
May 17, 1961 |
John F. Kennedy, President, United States |
May 26, 1964 |
U Thant, Secretary-General, United Nations |
April 14, 1972 |
Richard M. Nixon, President, United States |
March 30, 1973 |
Luis Echeverria, President, Mexico |
June 19, 1973 |
Indira Gandhi, Prime Minister, India |
May 5, 1980 |
Masayoshi Ohira, Prime Minister, Japan |
May 26, 1980 |
José Lopez Portillo, President, Mexico |
March 11, 1981 |
Ronald W. Reagan, President, United States |
September 26, 1983 |
Margaret Thatcher, Prime Minister, United Kingdom |
January 17, 1984 |
Zhao Ziyang, Premier, State Council, People’s Republic of China |
May 8, 1984 |
Miguel de la Madrid, President, Mexico |
March 7, 1985 |
Javier Perez de Cuellar, Secretary‑General, United Nations |
January 13, 1986 |
Yasuhiro Nakasone, Prime Minister, Japan |
April 6, 1987 |
Ronald W. Reagan, President, United States |
May 25, 1987 |
François Mitterand, President, French Republic |
May 10, 1988 |
Her Majesty Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands |
June 16, 1988 |
Helmut Kohl, Chancellor, Federal Republic of Germany |
June 22, 1988 |
Margaret Thatcher, Prime Minister, United Kingdom |
February 27, 1989 |
Chaim Herzog, President, State of Israel |
October 11, 1989 |
His Majesty King Hussein Bin Talal, Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan |
June 18, 1990 |
Nelson Mandela, Deputy President, African National Congress |
April 8, 1991 |
Carlos Salinas de Gortari, President, Mexico |
June 19, 1992 |
Boris Yeltsin, President, Federation of Russia |
February 23, 1995 |
William J. Clinton, President, United States |
June 11, 1996 |
Ernesto Zedillo, President, Mexico |
September 24, 1998 |
Nelson Mandela, President, Republic of South Africa |
April 29, 1999 |
Vaclav Havel, President, Czech Republic |
February 22, 2001 |
Tony Blair, Prime Minister, United Kingdom |
March 9, 2004 |
Kofi Annan, Secretary-General, United Nations |
October 25, 2004 |
Vicente Fox Quesada, President, Mexico |
May 18, 2006 |
John Howard, Prime Minister, Australia |
September 22, 2006 |
Hamid Karzaï, President, Islamic Republic of Afghanistan |
May 26, 2008 |
Victor Yushchenko, President, Ukraine |
Since the 1970s, the normal practice has been for the House to adopt a motion for a joint address, without debate, prior to the delivery of the address.[142] In addition to the order to append the address and related speeches to the Debates,[143] the motion has also included the date and time of the adjournment of the House, as well as other conditions for the order of business on the day of the address. By 1980, the motion also included permission for the transmission of the address and related speeches by the media.[144]
When a joint address takes place, Senators and Members of the House of Commons assemble in the House of Commons Chamber. However, the assembly does not constitute a sitting and the Mace is not on the Table. An established protocol is nonetheless followed.
The seating arrangements in the House are not what they would be for a regular sitting. The Speaker of the House takes the Chair, with the Speaker of the Senate seated in a chair to his or her right. The Table is cleared of the usual paraphernalia and a lectern placed at its head. The Prime Minister and the distinguished visitor are seated along the side of the Table to the Speaker’s right; the Clerk of the Senate and the Clerk of the House of Commons are seated along the other side of the Table. Seating for the rest of the official party, the Justices of the Supreme Court and the Senators is arranged on the floor of the House in front of the Table.
On arrival at the Centre Block, the distinguished visitor is met in the Rotunda by the Prime Minister and the Speakers of both Houses, the leaders of the parties in both Houses, the Clerk of the Senate and the Clerk of the House of Commons, the Usher of the Black Rod and the Sergeant-at-Arms. The Speaker of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Commons invite the distinguished guest to sign the visitors books for the Senate and the House of Commons. Then the Prime Minister, the distinguished visitor, the two Speakers and the two Clerks are escorted to the office of the Speaker of the House of Commons by the Usher of the Black Rod and the Sergeant-at-Arms, while the party leaders are escorted to the House of Commons by pages from the Senate and the House of Commons.
At the appointed hour, the official party enters the House of Commons Chamber. The Speaker of the House of Commons presents the Prime Minister and invites him or her to address the assembly. The Prime Minister takes the floor and presents the distinguished visitor. Afterwards, the distinguished visitor is thanked by the Speaker of the Senate, followed by the Speaker of the House of Commons, who then concludes the assembly. The official party then exits the Chamber: the Usher of the Black Rod first, followed by the distinguished visitor and the Prime Minister, the Speaker of the Senate, the Clerk of the Senate, the Sergeant-at-Arms, the Speaker of the House of Commons and the Clerk of the House of Commons, proceeding to the office of the Speaker of the House of Commons.
[124] For further information on Royal Assent, see Chapter 16, “The Legislative Process”.
[125] S.C. 2002, c. 15, ss. 3(1) and (2).
[126] See, for example, Journals, December 23, 1988, p. 80; June 27, 1989, p. 463; December 20, 1989, p. 1060; December 19, 1990, pp. 2513‑5; June 16, 1993, pp. 3321‑2. For further information on recalls of the House, see Chapter 8, “The Parliamentary Cycle”.
[127] Standing Order 28(3). See also Debates, June 23, 1994, pp. 5781‑2.
[128] Standing Order 28(4). See the Twenty‑Seventh Report of the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs, Minutes of Proceedings and Evidence, June 8, 1994, Issue No. 16, p. 16:3, presented to the House on June 8, 1994, (Journals, p. 545), and concurred in on June 10, 1994 (Journals, p. 563). On June 23, 1994, the House was recalled for the first time pursuant to Standing Order 28(4) (Journals, p. 668).
[129] Standing Order 29(5). Though a “sitting” for the sole purpose of Royal Assent is not a regular sitting, it has become practice for the Speaker to read Prayers prior to receiving the message from the Governor General for the House’s attendance in the Senate. For further information, see the section in this chapter entitled “Quorum when the Attendance of the House Is Requested in the Senate”.
[130] See, for example, Journals, December 15, 2004, p. 358, Debates, p. 2817.
[131] This also precludes the deposit of any document with the Clerk of the House and the reading of any Senate message except for those regarding Royal Assent. See, for example, Journals, December 15, 2004, pp. 357-8; June 22, 2007, pp. 1583-5.
[132] See, for example, Journals, June 20, 2007, p. 1565 (regular sitting (No. 175) of the House); June 22, 2007, p. 1583 (sitting convened (No. 175A) solely to attend a Royal Assent ceremony). Standing Order 28(5) provides that, during adjournments of the House, upon receipt of a message signifying Royal Assent by written declaration, the Speaker shall inform the House of the receipt of the message by causing it to be published in the Journals. See, for example, Journals, July 20, 2005, pp. 1013-4. Journals with a letter added to the sitting number are also published when Parliament is prorogued or dissolved during a period of adjournment and the Speaker must publish the list of documents, if any, deposited with the Clerk during the adjournment. See, for example, Journals, May 23, 2004, p. 429; September 14, 2007, p. 1587.
[133] Constitution Act, 1867, R.S. 1985, Appendix II, No. 5, s. 44.
[134] Constitution Act, 1867, R.S. 1985, Appendix II, No. 5, s. 45.
[135] Standing Order 2(1) and (2).
[136] Standing Order 2(3).
[137] For further information on “strangers”, see Chapter 6, “The Physical and Administrative Setting”.
[138] Journals, April 15, 1918, p. 151.
[139] Journals, November 28, 1944, p. 931. Prior to the adjournment of the House on the day preceding the secret sitting, Members discussed various ways by which the House could conduct a sitting in secret. It was decided, on the invitation of the Speaker, that, upon commencing the sitting the following day, the prayers would be read but the doors would not be opened. The Speaker then indicated that he would leave it to the House, at that point, to proceed as it deemed fit (Debates, November 27, 1944, pp. 6632‑3).
[140] Journals, April 17, 1918, p. 160; February 24, 1942, p. 93; July 18, 1942, p. 553; November 28, 1944, p. 931.
[141] See, for example, Debates, December 6, 1867, p. 199; December 19, 1867, p. 317.
[142] See, for example, Journals, March 29, 1972, p. 232; February 24, 2004, p. 119; October 8, 2004, p. 75; May 5, 2006, pp. 134-5. Prior to 1970, the motions to append the text of the address and introductory and related speeches were normally adopted at the sitting following the delivery of the address by distinguished visitors. See, for example, Journals, January 21, 1942, p. 655; May 18, 1961, p. 561.
[143] See, for example, Journals, May 5, 2006, pp. 134-5; Debates, May 18, 2006, pp. 1579-84. The joint address by U Thant, Secretary‑General of the United Nations, on May 26, 1964, was not printed in the Debates. There have been occasions when speeches by distinguished visitors were not given in Parliament, but rather on Parliament Hill, before Members of the Senate, the House of Commons and the general public. See, for example, Journals, January 26, 1944, p. 721, Debates, pp. 5435‑9 (speech by Franklin Delano Roosevelt, President of the United States of America); Journals, July 11, 1944, p. 541, Debates, pp. 4748‑51 (speech by General Charles de Gaulle).
[144] See, for example, Journals, April 29, 1980, p. 94; February 24, 2004, p. 119; October 8, 2004, p. 75; May 5, 2006, pp. 134-5.
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