This information was obtained from a reliable source:
On Wednesday, October 29 and Thursday, October 30, 2014, the Senate Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs had their last reading of Bill C-36. On Thursday afternoon the committee went through a clause-by-clause reading of the Bill.
This is what the Senate’s Legal and Constitutional Affairs decided:
1. The Bill will go back to the entire Senate without amendment and for 3rd reading. This will happen on Tuesday, November 4, 2014.
2. At 3rd reading, Senators have the chance to speak and to propose amendments to the Bill. There is no way of knowing how long this stage of debate will take or if amendments will be proposed. If amendments are proposed, we don’t know how the vote will go.
3. If the Bill is amended at 3rd reading by the Senate it will go back to the House of Commons for their concurrence. This only happens to about 12% of bills. For example, between April 2003 and March 2009, the Senate only recommended amendments to 37 of 300 bills that made it to committee stage. Even then, Parliament can refuse the Senate’s amendment. http://www.parl.gc.ca/About/Senate/Today/laws-e.html#rejeter
4. Once the bill has been adopted in an identical form by both the House and the Senate, the final stage is Royal Assent. We don’t know the exact date that this will happen.
5. There is a clause in the Bill’s most recent version, that says that certain provisions of the Bill will take force and effect on the date of Royal Assent.