Page - 150 - in VULNERABLE - The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19

VULNERABLE150 pandemic is affecting different sectors and how the measures the government has implemented are responding—or not—to those impacts.37 Off-Stage Accountability The importance of what occurs off-stage in both the pre-legislative and legislative processes emerges very strongly from the research of British scholars Meg Russell and David Gover.38 In an exhaustive study of the U.K. law-making process, Russell and Gover explain that parliamentarians have more “influence” on the policy process than is generally acknowledged.39 This influence can take many forms. For example, the executive may propose legislation in a particular form because of the “anticipated reactions” of the opposition.40 One research participant in Russell and Gover’s study explained that “the sponsoring department will have a sense of what it thinks it can ask Parliament, where it might need to concede, and what it shouldn’t even ask because it would be too unacceptable.”41 This sense of what is possible is obviously more critical in a minority government such as the current one, but it is always a factor. The importance of anticipating reactions is magnified in an emer- gency because of the need to clear the way for the speedy passage of legislation. The general contours of emergency legislation are there- fore more likely to be crafted against the backdrop of “anticipated reactions.” The Government may go so far as to actively negotiate the contents of “the package” in advance with some or all opposition parties. Again, negotiation is more likely in a minority government situation.42 We have seen this type of negotiation occurring in response to COVID-19. The scrutiny of proposed legislation has taken place almost 37. I am grateful to Amelia Calbry-Muzyka for pointing this out to me. 38. Meg Russell & Daniel Gover, Legislation  at  Westminster:  Parliamentary  Actors  and  Influence  in  the  Making  of  British  Law  (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017). In the Canadian context, see Paul G Thomas, “Parliament and Legislatures: Central to Canadian Democracy?” in John C Courtney & David E Smith, eds, The Oxford  Handbook  of  Canadian  Politics  (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010) 153 [Thomas “Parliament and Legislatures”]. 39. Russell & Gover, ibid at 7. 40. Ibid at 8. 41. Ibid at 269. 42. Thomas, “Parliament and Legislatures”, supra note 38 at 160.