IIRC, members of parliament in Canada and Britain have or had some form of immunity from arrest (but not prosecution); ditto for Congress in the USA? They can still be charged, but what sort of arrest can happen and when is limited (to prevent intimidation or something like that)
Article I, Section 6, Clause 1, of the U.S. Constitution states in part,
- for any Speech or Debate in either House, [senators and representatives] shall not be questioned in any other place.*
The purpose of the clause is to prevent the arrest and prosecution of unpopular legislators based on their political views.
The U.S. Supreme Court has gradually defined and redefined the Speech or Debate Clause in several cases over the years. The first case concerning the Speech and Debate Clause was Kilbourn v. Thompson, 103 U.S. (13 Otto) 168, 26 L. Ed. 377 (1880). The Court has interpreted the Speech or Debate Clause to mean that members of Congress and their aides are immune from prosecution for their “legislative acts.” This does not mean that members of Congress and their aides may not be prosecuted. Rather, evidence of legislative acts may not be used in a prosecution against a member of Congress or a congressional aide.
The main controversy surrounding the Speech or Debate Clause concerns the scope of the phrase “legislative acts.” The phrase obviously encompasses speeches and debates on the floor of the Senate or the House of Representatives. According to the Supreme Court, voting, preparing committee reports, and conducting committee hearings also are legislative acts, but republishing legislative materials for distribution to constituents and accepting a bribe to influence a vote are not.
From here.
Thanks for the clarification.
This video seemed interesting.
Business as usual…heh…
Every single time I have been in Brazil I somehow find myself gazing at a television screen somewhere inevitably they are going over the latest corruption scandal. I can tell this even across the room with the sound off.
How can I tell? Because they are always showing photocopied documents on the screen, with certain irregularities indicated in yellow highlighter. I think they show photocopied cooked books in every single Brazilian newscast.
No, it’s an immunity from civil process while the House is in session, and 40 days before it starts, and 40 days after. Why 40 days? Because that’s how long it took a member of Parliament in England to arrive in London from the wilds of Northumbria and Yorkshire, riding by horse and carriage, and we in Canada think that’s a fair measure of parliamentary immunity. 
An MP can be arrested on a criminal charge. Fred Rose, MP, was arrested on the floor of the Commons and eventually convicted of spying.
A friend of ours has just returned from living in rural northern Brazil for 9 years (she still talks to people there every day). One of the reasons she left is this matter, and the social disruption being caused by the money spent on the World Cup and now the Olympics. It’s now clear to the poor that there always was money that could have been spent on improving their lot, it just wasn’t.
She says that, while Rousseff may well be technically guilty of this charge, she was almost unique in not doing it to benefit herself. She’s probably the least corrupt President they’ve had. She thinks the motive for the charge to remove her because she’s not corrupt enough, to make way for a return to the old corrupt ways. There is apparently no-one likely to replace her who is less corrupt than her.
In a way, I think it’s partially the fact that Lula and Dilma both empowered the people enough for them to stand up to this shit. They’re sort of victims of themselves. What Dilma has done is corrupt, but it’s not all that bad, relatively. At the same time, it’s quite amazing to see the sheer amounts of people standing up to this corruption. People who until a few years ago weren’t even able to formulate opinions in this way, and certainly weren’t motivated to take to the streets. They weren’t talking about it down 't pub, never mind facebook.
When I lived there I would have to go to the mayor’s disgusting parties to secure funds for our organisation, because I was a pretty blond woman. Yuck. I don’t think that shit would fly there now, when I see the facebook posts of my friends there.
The kids that I worked with, who were in the huge education programmes set up by Lula, are now eloquently posting about seeing hospitals closed for the lack of doctors, while enormous glittering facilities are being set up for the Olympics. This education thingy, there might be something to it 
but then you get people with articulated opinions and the power to do something with those opinions and all that. Oops.
It’s a tough one, because Lula and Dilma did some great things in a huge country where it wasn’t easy to do what they did. They weren’t perfect, that was how those things went. But now people realise it doesn’t have to be that way and it is time for their comeuppance. Maybe they’re like those spiders who let their babies eat them: the final step of the plan is to let the people get rid of corruption once and for all and they get to eat mum & dad? But what happens next? Who comes after them?
I’m finding this thread very interesting. Thanks for the replies, everyone.
Thanks.
I agree with this to a large degree. Once you get a middle class, they start to want to have a say in things, and to see that things are working for them. People are getting much more vocal about the corruption, and the advent of social media lets these stories spread in a way that they didn’t in the past.
What I’ve seen and heard is that the television and print media are controlled by rich families who are affiliated with the right wing. However, a lot of this is being driven and organized on social media such as Facebook and Whatsapp.
Another article which mentions what is happening in Brazil:
Good on you guys, because frankly that’s shit.
It mostly the conservatives that are blaming the government for putting way to much money into social programs.
And taking money and putting it into social programs and borrowing more money.
It is more political move.They don’t like that.
Well, she’s been impeached and suspended from office, pending a trial in the Senate, near as i can understand.
From what I heard, the impeachment motion passed both houses with hefty supermajorities. Rousseff better start her apartment hunting sooner rather than later.
Here is an excellent indepth article about the Brazilian crisis:
Www.theguardian.com/world/20...dal-in-history
Don’t know what happened to your link there - try this one:
Wait, is the current scandal the same as the one that brought down Rousseff last year? Back when Northern Piper started this thread in April 2016, that’s presumably what was he [?] was referring to.
Yes, when I started the thread last year, it was the pending impeachment of the President I was asking about.
This Car Wash thing is all new to me.