Commissioner of Canada Elections and Director of Public Prosecutions have made it clear they won’t prosecute despite clear evidence Conservative Party made misleading calls to voters in many ridings across Canada

Thursday, July 23, 2015

OTTAWA – Today, Democracy Watch announced that, given the Commissioner of Canada Elections and the Director of Public Prosecutions have made it clear that they are going to ignore clear evidence, it will launch a private prosecution of the Conservative Party officials who arranged the robocalls to voters in many ridings across Canada that misled them concerning the location of their polling station.

The Commissioner of Canada Elections concluded in April 2014 after investigating that officials in the Conservative Party, after being warned not to do so by Elections Canada, booked robocalls to voters in many ridings across Canada that misled them about the location of their polling station, which is a clear violation of federal elections law.  The Commissioner did not even refer his findings to the Director of Public Prosecutions for review and possible prosecution.

Since then, Democracy Watch and others have appealed to the Commissioner and Director to prosecute the officials who booked the fraud robocalls.  They have refused, even though former Conservative staffer Michael Sona has been charged, prosecuted and sentenced to jail for misleading voters during the 2011 election with fraud robocalls in a Guelph, Ontario riding – even though the evidence that he was involved was much less clear than the evidence that the Conservative Party booked robocalls that misled voters in many ridings across Canada.

“The Commissioner of Canada Elections and Director of Public Prosecutions have clear evidence that the Conservatives made election robocalls that misled voters, which is a clear violation of the federal elections law, but they won’t prosecute so Democracy Watch will to ensure the violators are held accountable for their wrongdoing,” said Duff Conacher, Co-founder of Democracy Watch and Visiting Professor at the University of Ottawa.  “There is no way the Commissioner or Director can justify refusing to prosecute the Conservatives given that the only case on record for misleading voters with fraud robocalls, Michael Sona’s case, resulted in a conviction based on relatively weak evidence.  In such a situation, and given the clear evidence the Conservatives intentionally made misleading robocalls to many voters, neither the Commissioner nor the Director can claim they know for sure that prosecuting the Conservatives will not be successful, and so they should be prosecuting and letting the courts decide if the Conservatives crossed the line and should be convicted.”

Democracy Watch was the first to notice the huge number of complaints from voters about the 2011 election and it called for transparency from Elections Canada about what they were doing with the complaints (and complaints back to the 1997 election) in a November 2011 news release.

After digging by Ottawa Citizen/Postmedia reporters Stephen Maher and Glen McGregor, and leaks, Elections Canada finally disclosed details in spring 2012 about the election fraud robocalls investigation underway by the Commissioner of Canada Elections (who enforces the Canada Elections Act).  Democracy Watch continued to push for transparency about the Commissioner’s rulings on all past election complaints.

Democracy Watch launched a national letter-writing campaign and petition drive calling for proper enforcement of the federal election law, and for key changes to ensure fraud robocalls would be effectively stopped, a campaign that continued through to June 2014 pushing for changes to the Conservatives’ unfair so-called “Fair Elections Act.”

Not only did the Commissioner keep rulings on past complaints secret, he also refused to clarify a clearly flawed ruling he made on a complaint filed by a voter about a clear violation of the law during the 2011 election, and an audit of the 2011 election found other enforcement problems.

In response to the Commissioner’s secrecy, Democracy Watch filed a complaint with the federal Information Commissioner about the refusal of the Commissioner to disclose his rulings on past election complaints (he refused because some of the rulings might make him look bad).

The Commissioner of Canada Elections finally ruled on the fraud robocalls scandal in April 2014, letting the Conservative Party off the hook even though the Commissioner found that it deliberately made robocalls in many ridings across Canada during the 2011 federal election that misled voters about the location of polling stations (which is a clear violation of the Canada Elections Act).

Democracy Watch criticized the Commissioner’s ruling announced that it would launch a private prosecution of the Conservatives if government lawyers didn’t overturn the ruling and launch a prosecution.

Since then, former Conservative staffer Michael Sona has been prosecuted and found guilty and sentenced to 9 months in jail for misleading voters during the 2011 election with fraud robocalls in a Guelph, Ontario riding – even though the evidence that he was involved was much less clear than the evidence that the Conservative Party booked robocalls that misled voters in many ridings across Canada.

The Criminal Code allows anyone to launch a private prosecution for certain offences, and Democracy Watch continues to gather evidence and legal support to take those Conservatives responsible for the 2011 election fraud robocalls to court — because government lawyers won’t.

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FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:
Duff Conacher, Co-founder of Democracy Watch, Visiting Professor at the University of Ottawa
Tel: (613) 241-5179
Cell: 416-546-3443
[email protected]

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Democracy Watch’s Robocalls Prosecution Campaign page

Link to CTV News piece

Unjustifiable and undemocratic for unelected senators to change or fail to pass bill

Large majority of voters support empowering MPs and large majority of MPs passed Bill C-586 (which only gives MPs and parties votes on some ways to empower MPs)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Monday, June 22, 2015

OTTAWA – Today, Democracy Watch called on the Senate to stop playing games and pass the Reform Act (Bill C-586) this week.  On Friday two Conservative senators – David Wells backed by Denise Batters – proposed an amendment to the Reform Act that will likely be voted on late Monday.  If the change passes it will effectively stop the bill because the House of Commons has adjourned and very likely won’t open again to consider the change before an election call stops all outstanding bills.

Even if the amendment fails to pass, the Senate could still stop the Reform Act simply by failing to pass it before the Senate adjourns (which is expected to happen at the end of the week).

The House of Commons passed the Reform Act by a vote of 260-17 on February 25th.  It only requires MPs to vote behind closed doors after each election on rules that govern some of their rights and powers in relation to their party leader and caucus, and they are allowed to vote to keep the rules the same as they are now.  The only actual change it makes is to remove the power of party leaders to approve election candidates – but it gives parties the right to decide to give that power back to their leader (or to anyone else).

In other words, it is in effect only a ‘Hope for Reform Act’ – it only creates a formal opportunity after each election for discussion and reform of some of the rights and powers of MPs.  A national survey in May 2013 found that 71% of adult Canadians want restrictions on the powers of leaders to choose their party’s election candidates, to choose which MPs sit on committees, and to penalize politicians who don’t vote with their party (only 20% were opposed; 9% did not answer).  Another national survey in November 2014 found that 61% want local riding associations to choose election candidates (only 24% want the leader to do this), and 73% want a majority of MPs to decide whether to expel an MP from the party (only 17% want the leader to decide).

For all these reasons, it is unjustifiable, undemocratic and simply ridiculous that unelected senators have taken so long to review the Reform Act and are even considering changing or stopping it.

“The Hope for Reform Act passed in the House of Commons by a huge majority and it only gives parties the opportunity to democratize the selection of all their election candidates, and MPs the opportunity to decide some of their rights and powers concerning their party leader and caucus,” said Duff Conacher, Co-founder of Democracy Watch and Visiting Professor at the University of Ottawa. “It is completely unjustifiable, undemocratic and ridiculous that unelected senators have taken so long to review the Reform Act, and they should stop playing games and pass it before the Senate adjourns.”

The initial version of the Reform Act (Bill C-586) took away each federal party leader’s power to approve their party’s election candidates and gave it to a riding-association elected nomination officer in each province (and one for all the territories).  It also took away each leader’s power to: choose the party’s caucus chair; kick an MP out of caucus (and re-admit them), and choose an interim leader if the leader resigns. Instead, the bill required a secret-ballot vote approved of by a majority of MPs in each party to make these decisions, and it also gave 20% of any party’s MPs the power to initiate a secret-ballot vote of all the party’s MPs that, if passed by a majority of the party MPs, would either endorse or fire the party’s leader.

Last December, Conservative MPs introduced amendments in committee that effectively changed it into the “Hope for Reform Act” – changes that meant the bill allows parties to decide (however they want) who will approve candidates (so leaders could end up keeping this power), and changes that meant each party’s MPs would only be required to vote after each election behind closed doors on the rule changes summarized above concerning choosing their caucus chair, expelling or re-admitting an MP, and reviewing their leader.

The November 2014 national survey indicated that voters wanted the Reform Act changed in only one way, with 68% saying they want the members of the party to decide whether to fire the party leader (only 26% want the party’s MPs to decide).  Senator Wells’ proposed amendment removes from the Reform Act the measure that allows MPs to vote in a rule that gives them the power to remove a party leader.

Democracy Watch’s position is the rule should be that a majority of each party’s MPs could initiate a review of the party leader but then all members of the party would vote on whether to remove the party leader.  However, even though Democracy Watch thinks the proposed rules concerning MP rights and powers in the Reform Act should be changed and strengthened and expanded to cover other key rights and powers, it still supports passing the bill as it is a step forward in the movement to free and empower MPs in ways that balance their rights with restrictions on the powers of party leaders.

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FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:
Duff Conacher, Co-founder of Democracy Watch
Tel: (613) 241-5179
Cell: 416-546-3443
[email protected]

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Democracy Watch’s Stop Muzzling MPs Campaign page