Hansard

As the populace became interested in parliamentary debates, more independent newspapers began publishing unofficial accounts of them.

The many penalties implemented by the government, including fines, dismissal, imprisonment, and investigations, are reflective of "the difficulties faced by independent newspapermen who took an interest in the development of Upper Canada, and who, in varying degrees, attempted to educate the populace to the shortcomings of their rulers".

[3] In 1771, Brass Crosby, who was Lord Mayor of the City of London, had brought before him a printer by the name of John Miller who dared publish reports of parliamentary proceedings.

[4] Parliament ceased to punish the publishing of its debates as harshly, partly due to the campaigns of John Wilkes on behalf of free speech.

On 5 June 1810 William Cobbett stood trial for seditious libel for an article he wrote against the British Government which was published by Thomas Curson Hansard.

[3] The court sentence read: "The court do adjudge that you, William Cobbett pay to our Lord the King a fine of £1000; that you be imprisoned in His Majesty's gaol of Newgate for the space of two years, and that at expiration of that time you enter into a recognizance to keep the peace for seven years—yourself in the sum of £3000, and two good and sufficient sureties in the sum of £1,000; and further, that you be imprisoned till that recognizance be entered into, and that fine paid".

At the same time, the decision was made to publish debates of the two houses in separate volumes, and to change the front cover from orange-red to light blue.

Its terms of reference are those set by a House of Commons select committee in 1893, as being a report which, though not strictly verbatim, is substantially the verbatim report with repetitions and redundancies omitted and with obvious mistakes (including grammatical mistakes) corrected, but which, on the other hand, leaves out nothing that adds to the meaning of the speech or illustrates the argument.

This understated phrase covers a variety of situations, ranging from members laughing uproariously to the physical invasion of the chamber.

In the resulting case of Stockdale v Hansard,[8][9] the court found that the house held no privilege to order publication of defamatory material.

In consequence, Parliament passed the Parliamentary Papers Act 1840 to establish privilege for publications under the house's authority.

The Hansard of the House of Lords operates entirely independently of its Commons counterpart, but with similar terms of reference.

It covers parliamentary business in the House of Lords chamber itself, as well as the debates in the Moses Room, known as Grand Committee.

Emma Crewe notes that "Editors view reporters in general as a hive of revolution and anti-establishment attitudes, while they perceive themselves as calm and uncomplaining".

As with the Westminster Hansard, the Canadian version is not strictly verbatim, and is guided by the principle of avoiding "repetitions, redundancies and obvious errors".

Hansard supplies an affiliation the first time each member speaks in the House on a particular day—"Mr. Mathieu Ravignat (Pontiac, NDP)" or "Hon.

Lynne Yelich (Minister of State for Western Economic Diversification, CPC)"—and by name only when they rise later to speak.

And the bells having rung: The Acting Speaker (Mr. Marcel Proulx): A recorded division on the motion stands deferred until tomorrow at the end of government orders.Given the bilingual nature of the Canadian federal government, two equivalent Canadian Hansards are maintained, one in French and one in English.

In addition to being already translated and aligned, the size of the Hansards and the fact that new material is always being added makes it an attractive corpus.

The Canadian Hansard records make note of the language used by the members of parliament, so as not to misinterpret the words of the person who has the floor.

Henry Winton, editor of Saint John's Ledger, "had his ears cut off and was left unconscious by thugs who had been lying in wait for him after dark".

The two most prominent papers in parliamentary reporting were the Acadian Recorder, founded in 1813 by Anthony Henry Holland, and the Free Press, established in 1816 by Edward Ward.

[1] The Novascotian newspaper would soon become Nova Scotia's most prominent paper after its launch in 1824, which was highly influenced by George Young who was instrumental in its establishment.

[20] From 1905 to 1971, local newspapers reported on legislative proceedings, and from these articles the Legislature Library has compiled a Scrapbook Hansard, which is available online.

Assembly standing orders 115 and 116 set out the rules for broadcast media in the Chamber and at committee meetings, respectively.

"[23] Transcripts for Legislative Assembly of Alberta proceedings from 1972 onward are available online, and current issues are usually posted within 12 hours of the day's sitting.

As with Ontario, various newspapers reported on the proceedings, which can be found in the Legislative Assembly Sessional Clippings Books, provided by the University of Victoria [25] Unlike the Ottawa Hansard, opposition members and government backbenchers are identified only by initial and last name: "A. Wilkinson".

[33][34] Ever since that day official transcripts of members' speeches in the New Zealand House of Representatives have been continuously published.

Hansard is published on the New Zealand Parliament website each day the House sits, and later indexed bound volumes are produced.

Hansard Editors follow strict rules on what changes they can make to the words members use in the chamber.

Hansard's title page in 1832
Sample of Hansard from the Canadian House of Commons, 1895. Shows sample of several members speaking as described in the text.
Cover page of Hansard for the Province of Ontario, February 12, 1953