As an example, the following petition asks the Government of Canada to explore alternatives to Twitter/X, such as decentralised networks. I see the petition was already linked elsewhere on Lemmy but it is not clear how many people actually took action on creating a petition account.
https://www.ourcommons.ca/petitions/en/Petition/Details?Petition=e-5359 e-5359 (Government services and administration)
“We, the undersigned, citizens and residents of Canada, call upon the Government of Canada to transition official government communications away from Twitter/X to more secure, community-regulated platforms that prioritise public safety, accurate information, and accessibility. We encourage the government to explore publicly accountable alternatives, including decentralised networks, to ensure reliable and responsible communication with Canadians.”
The request here is to do more than upvote a Fediverse thread. The request is to spend the time to create a petition account and upvote the petition.
To create a petition account, a person must be a Canadian citizen or a resident of Canada. Other people can simply provide moral support on the Fediverse.
https://www.ourcommons.ca/petitions/en/Account/Register
The petition account needs a person’s name, email, phone, and address. The address will include the city and postal code but not the street address.
Fake information is not acceptable and “may be dealt with as a breach of privilege” https://www.ourcommons.ca/procedure/procedure-and-practice-3/ch_22_2-e.html Please do not create fake accounts.
Automatic email verification will be performed to confirm the creation of a petition account.
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Good timing. I just saw another petition post and had some questions.
- What organization is this and do these petitions actually do anything or go anywhere?
- What are they doing with my political opinions after I disclose them?
Great questions!
1] What organization is it?
The https://www.ourcommons.ca/ website is used by a part of the Parliament of Canada, and specifically, the House of Commons. For a legislative bill to become legislation (law) in Canada, two organizations of the Parliament of Canada, the House of Commons and the Senate, must each go through 3 of their own rounds of process. For each of these 2 organizations, as part of their respective third round, a majority of the respective organization must vote in support of the bill.
Even when these majority votes allow a bill to pass into legislation, it is possible that the legislation is great but it is also possible that the legislation is terrible, or somewhere in between.
The House of Commons represents the federally elected officials. It is also possible for a Member of the House of Commons not to be elected in certain circumstances, such as with Prime Minister Carney.
2] What is a petition all about and where does it appear?
As Charles mentioned, it is possible to submit a paper petition. This discussion will instead focus on electronic petitions but some of the information applies to either one.
https://www.ourcommons.ca/procedure/procedure-and-practice-3/ch_22-e.html “Petitions addressed to the House of Commons and presented to the House by its Members constitute one of the most direct means of communication between the people and Parliament.”
https://www.ourcommons.ca/procedure/procedure-and-practice-3/ch_22_1-e.html “In Canada, provisions for petitions (long a feature of the pre-Confederation legislative assemblies) have always been part of the written rules of the House.” Canadians have enjoyed the right to petition the House of Commons to comment on bills, legislation, or other matters affecting Canada, based not on the Constitution but instead based on well entrenched, centuries-old tradition and established precedent.
Practically speaking, petitions may fail to meet some requirements. If the petitioners do not want to abandon the issue, a petition will often have to be recreated. Improper language can be one reason. As another reason, 500 signatures are required before a chosen deadline. As another example, Parliament may get dissolved before a petition gets read and will need to be recreated in the following Parliamentary session. Some example petitions have been recreated 8 times, such as for repeatedly failing to meet the 500 signatures mark.
https://www.ourcommons.ca/petitions/en/Home/AboutContent?guide=PIElectronicGuide “Once the deadline for signing a petition has closed (i.e., after 30, 60, 90 or 120 days), the Clerk of Petitions will proceed with a final validation of signatures. If there are at least 500 valid signatures, the Clerk of Petitions will issue a certificate to the member of Parliament who authorized the online publication of the petition. It can then be presented to the House by any member. A record of this presentation will appear in the Journals for that day and the petitioner, supporters and signatories of the petition will be advised by email after its presentation.”
“The Standing Orders of the House of Commons require the government to respond to every petition presented to the House within 45 calendar days. If the House is not sitting on that day, the response must be presented at the next sitting of the House. The petitioner, supporters, signatories, and the member of Parliament who authorized the online publication of the e-petition will be notified by email when the response is tabled in the House. A copy will also be found on the petitions website along with the original petition.”
https://www.ourcommons.ca/procedure/standing-orders/Chap4-e.html “If such a petition remains without a response at the expiration of the said period of 45 days, the matter of the failure of the ministry to respond shall be deemed referred to the appropriate standing committee. Within five sitting days of such a referral the Chair of the committee shall convene a meeting of the committee to consider the matter of the failure of the ministry to respond.”
3] Do these petitions actually do anything?
Petitions bring formal awareness of an issue to the Parliament of Canada and to interested members of the public. If this awareness leads to many people signing a petition or if the issue is of great importance, the media may report on the issue.
When the House of Commons responds, while it may not take the requested action, it will attempt to provide helpful guidance on the issue. Related laws or regulations may be quoted. Advice for contacting more relevant people may be given. For example, if a petition was made to the House of Commons for educational reform, the House of Commons may suggest contacting provincial and territorial governments since it is those governments who look after education matters in Canada.
When it is in the power for the House of Commons to directly act on an issue, it is possible for a related action to take place.
4] What happens to my information?
The person who initiates (creates) a petition has their name, city, and province or territory published on the House of Commons website. This person should truly believe in the worthiness of the cause and should be willing to stand up for the issue being raised. If it is a truly noble, worthy, and appropriate cause, this person deserves our respect.
https://www.ourcommons.ca/petitions/en/Home/AboutContent?guide=PIElectronicGuide “The petitioner’s other personal information will be safeguarded on the House of Commons’ servers.”
The personal information of an initiator, a supporter, or a signatory may be used to contact that person by the “House of Commons’ authorized personnel” during the petition process. For example, email addresses will be used for validation and phone numbers may optionally additionally be used for validation. “Data may be used for statistical purposes.”
“None of the personal information provided to the House of Commons by a supporter or a signatory will be published on this website.”
“a general breakdown of signatures by province and territory will appear and remain on the website along with each e-petition.”
“Supporters’ and signatories’ personal information collected through the petitions website will be safeguarded for a duration of six months after the e-petition becomes inactive, or until the dissolution of a Parliament, whichever is earlier, after which it will be destroyed by the House of Commons’ authorized personnel.”
5] Guidance on inappropriate petitions
A petition should not include signatures from fake people and should not contain information known to be false. A petition should be cautious not to include potentially libelous or defamatory statements.
A petition should not be about “impertinent or improper matters” and it would likely be better to vent about these things on social media than to waste valuable time in Parliament, since a relevant action will not be able to take place.
I haven’t done enough research to confidently answer your second question but for your first one:
That is the official website of the House of Commons of Canada. The process varies a bit between paper petitions and e-petitions but essentially, once the petition is certified (has enough signatures (25 for paper petitions, 500 for e-petitions), is formatted properly, and an MP is willing to present it) it will then be presented in the House by the MP associated with the petition and the government then has 45 days to respond to the content, if they fail to respond within 45 days, the MP who presented the petition can designate a committee of the house to look into why the government failed to respond.
So it doesn’t force the government to enact the content of the petition, but it forces the issue to be brought up in the House and forces the government to respond.
Source of most of that info: https://www.ourcommons.ca/petitions/en/home/index
I’ve created an account, but is there any point in having one? Signing a petition while logged in still requires manually filling in all the same information, and the account doesn’t even track those petitions signed.
It looks like the only thing that needs an account - or is even affected by having one - is creating your own petitions.
1] As you say, it is helpful to have an account for initiating (creating) a petition.
https://www.ourcommons.ca/petitions/en/Home/AboutContent?guide=PIElectronicGuide “Note: A petitioner may only have one e-petition open for signature in their name at any one time.”
If Fediverse users are willing to collaborate together on creating petitions, we will need at least one registered user per petition.
2] It can also be helpful to have an account to support a petition.
“When you draft your petition, you will be prompted to identify at least five potential supporters (Canadian residents or citizens), but no more than ten, and provide their emails.”
3] Regarding your point about logging in not helping with signing a petition, I agree with you it would be expected and helpful to be able to more easily sign a petition after logging in.
Maybe you found a bug. Maybe it is a cookies issue. Maybe it was not designed the way we might expect. Let me contact them to see what they have to say and at a minimum raise a feature request with them to make it work the way we might expect.
4] Regardless, “The House of Commons’ authorized personnel will have access to the personal information of a petitioner, supporter and signatory, and may use it to contact them or to validate their identity to ensure the integrity of the e-petition process.”
Because of uncertainty in how the validation process is conducted, it may be helpful for people to sign up for accounts over time, leaving sufficient time for validation.
Because of the issue for 3], the most compelling reasons at this time are to be prepared to help with 1] and 2].
“When you draft your petition, you will be prompted to identify at least five potential supporters (Canadian residents or citizens), but no more than ten, and provide their emails.”
lol WHY?
