The Senate.

• Author: Moss-Norbury, Vanessa
• Position: Legislative Reports - Brief article

On September 22, 2011, British Prime Minister, David Cameron, addressed a Joint Session of the Senate and the House of Commons, a week before the Senate was scheduled to return from the summer adjournment. His speech was the first by a British Prime Minister since Tony Blair addressed Parliament in 2001.

Committees began hearings on various orders of reference and a number of committee reports were presented or tabled in the Chamber. The committees' budget process got underway and several committees had budgets approved by the Standing Committee on Internal Economy, Budgets and Administration and by the Chamber.

During the months of September and October, there were a number of retirements in the Senate, including Senator Lowell Murray, Senator Vim Kochhar and Senator Sharon Carstairs.

Senator Murray was appointed in 1979 by Prime Minister Joe Clark. At the Senator's request, there were no formal tributes to him in the Chamber but on October 26, 2011, Senator James Cowan called the attention of the Senate to "the remarkable record of public service of our former colleague, the Honourable Lowell Murray who served with...