Senator Francis: Senator McCallum, I note that in the previous iteration of your bill, which was introduced last Parliament, there was a clause that is no longer found in the current bill. That clause explicitly stated that the National Ribbon Skirt Day is not to be considered a legal holiday or non-juridical day. Would you be able to explain why this clause is not found in Bill S-219?

Senator McCallum: Thank you for this question, Senator Francis. This clause was removed by the office of the Law Clerk and Parliamentary Counsel when they prepared this bill for reintroduction into this current Parliament. As we were informed by the Law Clerk’s office, it was removed because it has no legal effect. “For greater certainty” clauses serve to resolve ambiguities in legal texts. These clauses do not actually have any substantive legal effect. They simply reiterate the law as it already exists.

This is the case here. National Ribbon Skirt Day is not a legal holiday or non-juridical day. Legislation establishing a holiday is very explicit that it is creating a legal holiday — the Holidays Act being a prime example — or else it modifies relevant statutes directly to produce the effects of a holiday.

For example, the recent legislation to establish the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation amended the Canada Labour Code to make that day a holiday for federally regulated workers. The prevailing view in the Law Clerk’s office is that if the bill does not amend anything else or explicitly state that it is a legal holiday then there is no reason to believe the legislation would create a legal holiday.

As for the meaning of non-legal or non-juridical days, these are days that do not count for the purpose of determining deadlines for court filings. As an example, weekends are non-juridical days as are legal holidays like Canada Day or Victoria Day. A National Ribbon Skirt Day would not fall under this category.

Additionally, there is precedent in federal statutes that create special days without using this type of for-greater-certainty clause. These include the Holocaust Memorial Day Act and the Merchant Navy Veterans Day Act, and it appears that nobody has been confused as to whether these establish legal or non-juridical days, which they do not.

As my office has been advised by the Law Clerk’s office, they, along with their counterpart in the House of Commons as well as the Department of Justice, work under the principle that legislation should say no more than is necessary for them to operate. This reduces the possibility of ambiguity or error when people read a bill, but it also saves us senators time at committee and in the chamber as there is less to review and less to vote on or possibly amend. As such, in this case, the Law Clerk’s office is starting to remove this clause as it has no impact on the bill and does not add any requisite clarity.

As a final relevant point, you will note that this clause is also missing from two other day bills in this session, Bill S-227, An Act to establish Food Day in Canada and Bill S-209, An Act respecting Pandemic Observance Day. It is my hope that this provides clarity to your question.

(On motion of Senator Hartling, debate adjourned.)

On the Order:

Resuming debate on the motion of the Honourable Senator Boisvenu, seconded by the Honourable Senator Plett, for the second reading of Bill S-205, An Act to amend the Criminal Code and to make consequential amendments to another Act (interim release and domestic violence recognizance orders).