The Clerk of the House of Commons is the senior procedural and administrative officer in the

House of Commons of Canada The House of Commons of Canada (french: Chambre des communes du Canada) is the lower house of the Parliament of Canada. Together with the Crown and the Senate of Canada, they comprise the bicameral legislature of Canada. The House of Common ...

. The duties performed by the Clerk of the House of Commons include advising the

Speaker of the House of Commons Speaker of the House of Commons is a political leadership position found in countries that have a House of Commons, where the membership of the body elects a speaker to lead its proceedings. Systems that have such a position include: * Speaker of ...

and

Members of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

on matters of

parliamentary procedure Parliamentary procedure is the accepted rules, ethics, and customs governing meetings of an assembly or organization. Its object is to allow orderly deliberation upon questions of interest to the organization and thus to arrive at the sense or t ...

. As well, the Clerk is involved in the management of the House of Commons. The office is modelled on the

Clerk of the House of Commons The Clerk of the House of Commons is the chief executive of the House of Commons in the Parliament of the United Kingdom, and before 1707 of the House of Commons of England. The formal name for the position held by the Clerk of the House of Com ...

of the United Kingdom. Prior to the establishment of this office, there was the Clerk of the

Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada The Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada was the lower house of the legislature for the Province of Canada, which consisted of the former provinces of Lower Canada, then known as Canada East and later the province of Quebec, and Upper C ...

. The current Clerk is

Charles Robert Charles I, also known as Charles Robert ( hu, Károly Róbert; hr, Karlo Robert; sk, Karol Róbert; 128816 July 1342) was King of Hungary and Croatia from 1308 to his death. He was a member of the Capetian House of Anjou and the only son of ...

History

The thirteenth century saw the emergence of the Clerk as a profession in England. At that time, they were employed to record the decisions made by kings and kings' advisors. It was not until 1361 that the first Clerk of the House of Commons was officially appointed by the Crown. The main duty of the early Clerks of the House consisted of reading petitions and bills, while later they started to record the House's proceedings. Notes on proceedings evolved to journals, which aim to keep track of the decisions and other important transaction of the House. The House of Commons of Canada inherited the British parliamentary tradition. In 1867, William Burns Lindsay became the first Clerk of the House of Commons of Canada. Before Confederation, he served as the Clerk of the

. From 2014 to 2016, the Deputy Clerk Marc Bosc served the role of the Acting Clerk on an interim basis during the House of Commons Clerk Audrey O'Brien's medical leave period. He continued to remain in that position until the appointment of

in 2017.

Appointment and duties

The Clerk of the House of Commons are filled through governor-in-council appointments, pursuant to the

Public Service Employment Act In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...

. In 2001, the House made a modification to the appointment process according to a recommendation contained in the First Report of the Special Committee on the Modernization and Improvement of the Procedures of the House of Commons. From then on, the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs needs to conduct a review of the proposed appointee after the government makes the nomination. This committee then reports to the House of Commons, followed by a ratification vote by the House. This process was first applied when proposing the appointment of Audrey O'Brien in 2005. As well as advising the

and

on matters of

, the Clerk is involved in the management of the House of Commons. The procedural responsibility of the Clerk is to maintain and keep custody of the House's proceedings and other important documents. Before each sitting of the House, the Clerk is required to provide the official agenda for the day’s proceedings to the Speaker. At the beginning of a Parliament, all duly elected Members and the Members appointed to the Board of Internal Economy need to swear an oath of allegiance administered by the Clerk. With the aim of providing assistance to all Members regardless of party affiliation, the Clerk is expected to act with impartiality and discretion all the time. The Clerk of the Senate fulfills a similar role in the

Senate of Canada The Senate of Canada (french: region=CA, Sénat du Canada) is the upper house of the Parliament of Canada. Together with the Crown and the House of Commons, they comprise the bicameral legislature of Canada. The Senate is modelled after the B ...

. In the House of Commons Chamber, the Clerk’s Table is at the north end of the floor, in front of the Speaker’s Chair. The Clerk of the House of Commons sits at the head of the Table, with Clerks-at-the-Table on either side. The dress code of the Clerk is to wear a black robe.

Incumbent

The office is currently held by

who replaced Marc Bosc, who was appointed as Acting Clerk on September 4, 2014. Bosc had an international profile as President of the

Association of Secretaries General of Parliaments The Association of Secretaries General of Parliaments is an international association which associates the top civil servants of National Parliaments of over 150 countries in the world. Membership is destined to the secretaries general and clerks ...

(2011-2014). Robert is currently a member of the Executive Committee of the ASGP.

List of Clerks of the House of Commons

References

{{reflist

External links

Office of the Clerk of the House of Commons

Clerks of the House of Commons A clerk is someone who works in an office. A retail clerk works in a store. Office holder Clerk(s) may also refer to a person who holds an office, most commonly in a local unit of government, or a court. *Barristers' clerk, a manager and administ ...

Clerk of the House * Ceremonial officers in Canada Canada, House of Commons