Independent Senators Group
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Independent Senators Group
Groupe des sénateurs indépendants |
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|---|---|
| Facilitator | Elaine McCoy |
| Founded | March 10, 2016 |
| Ideology | Non-partisan |
| Seats in the Senate |
34 / 105
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The Independent Senators Group (ISG) is a parliamentary group in the Senate of Canada formed on March 10, 2016 by senators appointed by Prime Ministers from various parties. It was formed to provide non-affiliated (independent) senators with representation on committees and funding equivalent to those who sit in the two partisan caucuses.
Under Justin Trudeau the Canadian government committed itself to making the Senate a non-partisan body and only appointing non-affiliated Senators. The growing number of such appointments created a challenge within the upper house as it had always been organized along partisan lines and there were no mechanisms in place to deal with a large number of independent Senators in terms of funding or appointments to committees, whereas the Conservative and Senate Liberal Caucuses were funded and guaranteed appointments.
On March 10, 2016, six non-affiliated Senators, former Independent Progressive Conservative Senator Elaine McCoy, former Conservative caucus members Jacques Demers, John D. Wallace, Michel Rivard and Diane Bellemare and former Liberal Pierrette Ringuette formed an "Independent, Non-Partisan Working Group" which would “ensure the rights of equality” for all senators, “regardless of their political or non-political affiliation” while working to restore “public confidence” in the upper house “as a necessary and vital institution.”
In order to press for the recognition of the equal rights and obligations of non-affiliated Senators and facilitate their activities, the group, which had grown to fifteen senators adopted the name "Independent Senators Group". On September 27, 2016 the members of the ISG elected McCoy to act as the group's facilitator until the end of the parliamentary term in June 2017. Unlike party caucuses, the ISG does not have parliamentary whips and says that its members will not vote together except on issues such as changes to Senate rules and logistics that would accommodate the existence and rights of independent Senators.
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