19. Parliamentary Hearings
(a) Any Member of Parliament may make a motion for hearing, to hold a hearing with a specific individual or multiple individuals. The motion shall require a second before being brought to vote, and passes or fails with a simple majority of votes cast.
(b) Each individual summoned shall have a separate hearing thread, unless the motion specifies otherwise.
(c) All hearing threads shall be open to the public to view, unless the motion specifies otherwise.
(d) Each individual summoned shall be added to and pinged in their hearing thread once it is created, and provided the following:
(i) A notification that failure to appear within 48 hours shall be treated as Contempt of Parliament
(ii) A notification that failure to respond to, or clearly answer, any question asked of the individual within 48 hours shall be treated as Contempt of Parliament
(iii) A notification that lying to Parliament while answering questions under oath in the hearing shall be treated as Perjury
(iv) A request to repeat the following oath: “I solemnly swear to answer all questions asked of me honestly and truthfully, and that I will not intentionally lie or deceive with my responses.”
(v) If an individual is not in the Parliament server upon the creation of their hearing thread, they shall be summoned through the main Discord server’s government announcements channel. Only the notification outlined in 19(d)i is required for this summons, and then all requirements under subsection 19(d) shall be restated once the individual is in the server and available to be pinged and added to their hearing thread.
(e) The individual shall be expected to abide by the above information, and answer all questions honestly and truthfully. Individuals shall not be inhibited from or penalized for exercising their constitutional rights, including the Sixth Fundamental Protection of the Constitution.
(f) Any Member of Parliament may motion to close a hearing, which shall require a second before being brought to vote, and passes or fails with a simple majority of votes cast.
(g) A hearing may not be closed, even if a motion to close the hearing has passed, if a question has been asked and the 48 hours to respond have not yet elapsed. The hearing shall remain open until the question is answered, or the 48 hours elapse, whichever occurs sooner, and then be closed.
