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Search Help

To obtain more precise search results, consult the information on the options offered by the search engine on this site.

If you experience technical difficulties during your search, contact the Assembly at support.web@assnat.qc.ca.

Using the Advanced Search Function

The advanced search function offers options for refining your search. Just click on the “Advanced Search” option in the top right corner of each page of the site.

In an advanced search, you can limit your search to a section of the site or a type of document. Other criteria allow you to refine a search for

  • one or more MNAs
  • one or more scheduled activities
  • the subject-matter of parliamentary proceedings (Journal des débats (Hansard) of the Assembly or committees, bills, documents tabled in the Assembly or in committee, etc.)

If you are using the advanced search function for the first time, click on the question mark Help near each field or dropdown list for tips on refining your search.

Optimizing your Keyword Search (Search Operators)

You can search by keyword

The Space Corresponding to “and”

In the “Keyword” field, the space between the words entered plays the same role as an “and” operator. For example, if you enter “culture theatre dance”,  your search results will include all elements containing the words “culture”, “theatre” and “dance”.

Upper Case, Lower Case and Accents

In the “Keyword” field, the search engine does not take into account upper and lower case or accents. You will obtain the same results for “Québec Parliament” as for “Quebec Parliament” and “Quebec parliament”.

Search Operators

In the  “Keyword” field, you can use the following operators to refine your search.

Search Operators
OperatorMeaningExampleSearch results
| Or culture|theatre|danse all elements containing one of the given terms

-

A space must precede the minus sign

Except culture theatre -danse

all elements containing “culture” and “theatre” except those containing “dance”

It is not possible to launch a search using only the “except” operator (e.g. -theatre -dance).

< > Proximity culture<5>theatre all elements containing “culture”, provided there are no more than 5 words separating “culture” and “theatre”
" " Exact expression "children’s theatre"

all elements containing “children’s theatre”

English quotation marks (" ") are required; the search engine does not recognize French quotation marks
(« »).

Spaces or punctuation marks may be used between quotation marks (" "), in which case they do not function as operators.

Narrowing your Keyword Search

The results obtained using a keyword search are limited to those containing the keyword spelled exactly the way you spelled it in your query.

For example, if you enter the word “orders”, the search engine will only propose search results containing that spelling. The search engine will find a document entitled “Active Orders”, but will ignore a document entitled “Order of Reference”.

Searching Within a Document

The search engine allows you to search for information

  • on the pages of the website, such as the pages of the Journal des débats (Hansard)
  • in the electronic version posted on the website of documents such as the Order Paper and Notices and the Votes and Proceedings of the Assembly

The search engine does not offer the same search options for documents whose original version is in hard copy only. Such documents have been scanned and posted online as is.

Consequently, the search is not conducted in the text of a document but in the metadata associated with it. Metadata include basic information such as the title of the document or the name of the author. Search results are thus less precise than those generated when searching in the text of a document.

Scanned documents include certain briefs submitted to parliamentary committees or certain documents tabled in the Assembly or in committee.

See an example of a scanned document (PDF, 688 Kb, French only)

Searching for English Content

Not all site content is translated into English. For example, the Journal des débats (Hansard) is a transcript of the actual words spoken in the Assembly and in committee, for the most part in French.

For more on content translated into English

Searching for Spanish Content

Due to the small number of pages in Spanish, a search using one or more Spanish keywords will give few results. Only the pages of the International section are translated into Spanish.