Parliamentarians are bracing for the final stretch of the spring sitting, and criticism is growing over the Senate’s handling of key government bills.

As iPolitics reported earlier this week, the Liberals are unhappy a Senate committee refused to speed up review of government legislation overhauling bail and sentencing laws that was broadly supported in the House. Because of this, Bill C-14 won’t return to the Upper Chamber until May 26.

The government’s anti-hate bill was only referred to committee on Thursday despite being introduced in the Senate on March 26. However, the delay may have been attributable to debate over what committee will review Bill C-9.  Sen. Scott Tannas said last week that Senate leadership was considering avoiding justice committee because of its ongoing study of C-14.

Senators on Thursday decided to give the bill to the human rights committee.

A separate criminal justice bill — C-16 — is expected to land in the Senate soon, with clause-by-clause review by the House justice committee set to wrap in the coming days.

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Despite the backlog of bills, the Senate hasn’t sat late all week. It began its Tuesday sitting at 2 p.m., and rose just after 6 p.m. On Thursday, the Senate started at 1:30 and rose just past 3:30 p.m.

On Wednesday, the Senate sitting starts at 2 p.m. and there’s a rule to adjourn at 4 p.m.

The Senate doesn’t sit Mondays or Fridays, though has the option to do so on some weeks.

A senior government source expressed frustration to iPolitics about the Senate’s refusal to work extended hours to past Bill C-14, which brought in changes to bail laws called for by provincial premiers and municipal police chiefs.

“There’s no willing on their side to, you know, get things done rapidly. The rationale is we’re getting rushed. We can’t do this. We’re legislators. We can’t do our jobs properly,” said the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share their concerns freely.

An Ontario government source also expressed frustration with the slow pace in passing bail changes, noting that Premier Doug Ford has spent years calling for Ottawa to take action to prevent serial offenders from being quickly released back to the street.

The source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share their concerns freely, said the province is “waiting for the feds to move faster” on the file.

All of Canada’s premiers penned a letter to then-prime minister Justin Trudeau some two years ago calling for bail changes, and Ford has attempted to tighten the rules in his province by requiring cash payments and improving tracking for repeat offenders, among other changes.

But provinces have no power to amend the Criminal Code. That is the sole jurisdiction of the federal government.

This concern over pacing comes as rumours circulate about Prime Minister Mark Carney’s plans for the Senate.

Citing senior Liberal sources, The Globe and Mail reported last month that discussions are being held on appointing Carney’s principal secretary Tom Pitfield as government leader in the Senate, which would come with a spot around the cabinet table.

It’s unclear if this is progressing or if it would lead to the creation of a Senate Liberal caucus.

There has been no government caucus in the Senate since shortly after Justin Trudeau took over as prime minister in 2015. Trudeau opted to create a purportedly independent appointment process for senators. Prior to these changes, prime ministers usually appointed supporters of their party to the Senate.

Bill C-14 was fast-tracked through the House justice committee earlier this year as part of a deal with the Liberals and Conservatives. It would expand the use of reverse-onus provisions in bail hearings for cases involving violent auto-theft, break and enter, human trafficking and smuggling, assault and sexual assault, and extortion involving violence or violent threats.

The Liberals have said the bill was a direct response from calls from premiers, who are upset with repeated offenders quickly returning to the streets after arrests.

READ MORE: Liberals question Senate’s handling of bail reform bill

The Conservatives framed the bill as flawed but an improvement over the status quo, and lined up to support its speedy passage through Parliament.

It passed on division — which means opposition was noted, but no vote was held — on Feb. 13.

The bill landed in the Senate on Feb. 24, and was referred to committee on March 12. The first hearing on the bill at committee came on March 25.

So far, there have been six meetings at committee about the bill. There were only three — including clause-by-clause — at the House justice committee.

The Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, which endorsed C-14, said it “strengthens Canada’s response to repeat and violent offenders, organized crime, and threats to public safety.”

In a statement, the group said the bill “reflects many of the CACP’s own recommendations,” and urged “all parliamentarians to support the swift passage of this important bill to enhance safety and strengthen justice across Canada.”

Some have defended the Senate for putting C-14 through a more rigorous review.

Shakir Rahim, director of the criminal justice program with the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, said the bill will have “significant repercussions for Section 11(e) of the Charter,” and the House erred by not hearing from “any legal organizations.”

“I think is a fairly significant oversight,” he said, noting the Senate legal committee heard from an Aboriginal legal services group, the Indigenous Bar Association and Native Women’s Association of Canada, amongst others.

“[You can see] from a comparison of the witness lists, there was a lack of representation from certain groups, but the fact that we’re hearing those voices and perspectives in the Senate that we didn’t hear in the House, I think affirms that further.”

The government source said the problem was the pace of the review — not the merits of it — and noted the committee could’ve extended its hours to complete its study before the two-week parliamentary break.

The Senate has faced broader criticism for its pace in moving through legislation.

A bill introduced in the Senate to update Canada’s energy efficiency laws still hasn’t passed at committee despite being introduced in November 2025. At the time, no government bill from the House was before the Senate.

Six non-supply government bills have become law since the start of the current Parliament last spring.

That number will grow to seven soon after the bill to implement the U.K.’s accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership completed third reading in the Senate earlier this week.

Typically, there’s a flurry of activity in the Senate in the dying days of a sitting to ensure legislation passed in the House receives royal assent before lengthy breaks in the parliamentary calendar. This is the reason why the Senate usually sits a week later than the House.

But before the Christmas break, the Senate opted to rise early and not to take up two bills passed in the House on the final sitting day.

Government sources expressed frustration to iPolitics that the Senate rose early especially as the Upper Chamber didn’t study many government bills in the fall sitting. Only one non-supply bill — C-3, which granted citizenship to the so-called Lost Canadians — received royal assent in the fall.

Since then, the Senate has passed three other government bills, but only after contentious debates.

Senators objected to privacy changes for political parties brought into the government’s signature affordability bill and voted to create a sunset clause on that section.

The change was rejected by the House, and the amendment wasn’t insisted upon by the Senate. But a separate government source dubbed the debate over C-4 as a “crazy,” saying the unelected Senate had no place to overwrite changes to federal election law passed nearly unanimously by the House.

The government’s border security bill, C-12, also faced a bumpy ride in the Upper Chamber.

One senator, who asked for anonymity to speak freely about sensitive matters, accused their colleagues of overreaching by advancing amendments that would’ve quashed changes to Canada’s rules for asylum seekers, saying they were trying to rewrite government policy. That bill was supported by the Liberals and Bloc Quebecois.

The senator blamed disorganization around how members offered amendments to these government bills for creating recent divisions in the Independent Senators Group. They said frustration over lengthy third-reading debates on bills C-4 and C-12 caused by poorly coordinated and conceived amendments that lacked broad support in the Senate and were unlikely to win the backing of the House of Commons.

“We should have discussed these things maybe before introducing them so. Why do we have to stay here for three days to for amendments that at one point we don’t want to pass so?” the senator said of the ISG.

READ MORE: Plans for new Senate group could be fizzling out after ISG meeting

The anti-hate bill could face a similar rewrite in the Upper Chamber. Senate sources told iPolitics there’s discussion about introducing an amendment to add residential school denialism to the Criminal Code, though it’s unclear if it will come to pass or win broad support.

This has coloured the debate over what committee should study the bill. Some Senate sources expressed concerns that such a far-reaching change to criminal law wouldn’t face the same level of legal scrutiny at the human rights committee.

Complicating everything is the parliamentary calendar.

There are five sitting weeks left until the House rises for the summer, with a two-week break window coming later this month.

The expected flurry of late activity in the House to push through legislation could swamp the Senate’s agenda.

The Liberals have already named legislation creating Build Canada Homes as a Crown corporation a priority, and will likely want to quickly pass the bill implementing the recently tabled spring economic statement.

And unlike in the fall, the Liberals have a majority in the House, and the opposition has fewer tools to slow down the pace of bills.

The House is scheduled to sit until June 19, though could rise early.