Browse "Commissions & Reports"

On July 22, 1963, Prime Minister L. B. Pearson announced the establishment of a Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism under the direction of André Laurendeau and A. Davidson Dunton.

Applebaum-Hébert Report. Name commonly given to the report of the Federal Cultural Policy Review Committee appointed by the Liberal government in August 1980. This was the first review of Canadian cultural institutions and federal cultural policy after the Massey Commission report of 1951.

The Balfour Report of 1926 was an important document in Canada’s evolution to become a fully self-governing nation. The report declared that Britain and its Dominions were constitutionally equal. The findings of the report were made law by the British Parliament in the 1931 Statute of Westminster. This was the founding document of the modern Commonwealth. Canada remained linked to Britain politically. But legal power shifted decisively to the Canadian Parliament and its prime minister. This shift quickly led to an independent Canadian foreign policy and to the creation of its diplomatic service. It took several decades before Canada assumed all of its other powers under the Statute.

In 1974, the federal government formed a royal commission to consider two proposals for natural gas pipelines in the North. Thomas Berger, a judge, led the inquiry. Over the next two years, the Berger Commission assessed the potential impacts of the proposed pipelines. Berger held formal and informal hearings. These included 45 community hearings from the Northwest Territories and Yukon to Southern Canada. His 1977 report made several recommendations. He called for further study and the settlement of Indigenous land claims. He also called for a 10-year ban on pipeline construction in the Mackenzie Valley. Berger opposed building any pipeline across the sensitive caribou habitat of the northern Yukon. The Berger Commission involved the public and included Indigenous views more than any resource-related consultation had done before in Canada.

Click here for definitions of key terms used in this article.

Brandy Parliament, an assembly of 20 notables of New France, who on 10 October 1678 were asked their opinion of the sale of brandy to the Indigenous peoples. The title was bestowed in 1921 by historian W.B. Munro.

Canada Committee, a British parliamentary committee established 2 May 1828 to settle political disputes which were paralysing representative government in Lower Canada and creating difficulties in Upper Canada.

Founded in 1920 by Charlotte Whitton, the organization was initially known as the Canadian Council on Child Welfare. Ten years later, when its mandate was broadened to include families, it became the Canadian Council on Child and Family Welfare.

Created in 2000, the privately funded Canadian Democracy and Corporate Accountability Commission (CDCAC) was co-chaired by Canadian publisher Avie Bennett and ex-NDP leader Ed Broadbent.

The Canadian General Standards Board (CGSB) was established in 1934 under the National Research Council Act as the Government Purchasing Standards Committee and its present name was adopted in 1980.

The Canadian Human Rights Commission and the Human Rights Tribunal Panel were established under the 1977 Canadian Human Rights Act to investigate and resolve individual complaints about discriminatory employment practices.

The Commission of Inquiry into the Sponsorship Program and Advertising Activities, or Gomery Commission, or Gomery Inquiry, was appointed by Paul Martin's government on 19 February 2004.

A Commissioner for Oaths is any person over 18 years of age commissioned by a lieutenant-governor to administer oaths and take affidavits.

Parliament has many committees which perform functions that cannot be adequately accomplished in debate or question period.

Selected text of the Balfour Report:The Committee are of opinion that nothing would be gained by attempting to lay down a Constitution for the British Empire.

In 1838, the British politician Lord Durham was sent to British North America to investigate the causes of the rebellions of 1837–38 in the colonies of Upper and Lower Canada. Durham's famous Report on the Affairs of British North America (1839) led to a series of reforms and changes. These included uniting the two Canadas into a single colony, the Province of Canada, in 1841. (See also: Act of Union.) The report also paved the way for responsible government. This was a critical step in the development of Canadian democracy. The report played an important role in the evolution of Canada’s political independence from Britain.

The Estey Commission was an inquiry into the collapse of the CANADIAN COMMERCIAL BANK (CCB) and the Northland Bank. The Honourable Willard Z.

FINALLY, THERE CAME A MOMENT when it was raining tax dollars so hard in Quebec that even a resourceful man started running out of buckets to catch them. So in 1999 and again in 2002, Luc Lemay tried something new: he attempted to give some of the money back.

The Federal Cultural Policy Review Committee was established 28 August 1980 to review CULTURAL POLICIES for Canada. Its chairman was Louis APPLEBAUM and its co-chairman was Jacques HÉBERT. Other members included Thomas SYMONS, Mary PRATT and Rudy WIEBE.

WHEN THE DAM finally burst, the dung that had been piling up for more than a week behind a publication ban at the Gomery inquiry sent political operatives running for cover, and politicians in Ottawa and Quebec City shifting damage control into overdrive.