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The House of Commons of Canada is the lower chamber of the bicameral Parliament of Canada, which also comprises the sovereign and the Senate of Canada. The House of Commons currently meets in a temporary Commons chamber in the West Block of the parliament buildings on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, while the Centre Block, which houses the traditional Commons chamber, undergoes a ten-year renovation.
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Royal assent is the method by which a monarch formally approves an act of the legislature, either directly or through an official acting on the monarch's behalf. In some jurisdictions, royal assent is equivalent to promulgation, while in others that is a separate step. Under a modern constitutional monarchy, royal assent is considered little more than a formality. Even in nations such as the United Kingdom, Norway and Liechtenstein which still, in theory, permit their Monarch to withhold assent to laws, the Monarch almost never does so, except in a dire political emergency or on advice of government. While the power to veto by withholding royal assent was once exercised often by European monarchs, such an occurrence has been very rare since the eighteenth century.
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The Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner of Canada is an entity of the Parliament of Canada. The Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner is an independent Officer of Canada's Parliament, who administers the Conflict of Interest Act and the Conflict of Interest Code for Members of the House of Commons. These two regimes seek to prevent conflicts between the public duties and private interests of elected and appointed officials.
The Board of Internal Economy is the body that governs the administrative and financial policies of the House of Commons of Canada. Unlike most committees of the Parliament of Canada, the Board of Internal Economy continues through prorogation and dissolution. The Board is presided over by the Speaker of the House of Commons.
Judith Anne LaRocque,, is a senior Canadian civil servant. Most notably, she served as Secretary to the Governor General of Canada and Herald Chancellor of Canada from 1990 until 2000. Since 2010, she has been Canada's Ambassador and Permanent Representative at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in Paris.
Sir David Lionel Natzler is a former Clerk of the House of Commons, the principal constitutional adviser to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, and adviser on all its procedure and business. He was the 50th person to hold the role. Appointed by letters patent in March 2015, he was designated acting Clerk upon the retirement of Sir Robert Rogers in August 2014. He announced his retirement in a letter to the Speaker on 14 November 2018.
Dame Sandra Prunella Mason, GCMG, DA, QC is the Governor-General of Barbados. She was a practising Attorney-at-Law who has served as a High Court judge in Saint Lucia and a Court of Appeal judge in Barbados. She was the first woman admitted to the Bar in Barbados. She served as chair of the CARICOM commission to evaluate regional integration, was the first magistrate appointed as an Ambassador from Barbados, and was the first woman to serve on the Barbados Court of Appeals. She was the first Bajan appointee to the Commonwealth Secretariat Arbitral Tribunal and served briefly as the Governor General of Barbados. She has been called one of the 10 most powerful women in Barbados. In 2017, she was appointed as the 8th Governor General of Barbados, with a term beginning on 8 January 2018. Simultaneously with her appointment, Mason was awarded the Dame Grand Cross in the Order of Saint Michael and Saint George. On assumption of the office of Governor-General, Dame Sandra Mason, under the Order of Saint Andrew, became the Chancellor and Principal Dame of Saint Andrew.
References
- ↑ "Appendices - Clerks of the House of Commons Since 1867" . Retrieved 18 November 2014.
- ↑ "Office of the Clerk of the House of Commons" . Retrieved 15 September 2015.
- ↑ "Order of Canada Appointments". The Governor General of Canada His Excellency the Right Honourable David Johnston. Governor General of Canada . Retrieved 31 December 2015.
