Changes to law needed before next election to require Elections Canada to enhance pre-election voter registration, have clear rules and better training for election workers, to conduct full public audits after every election, and to disclose all rulings

Thursday, May 2, 2013

OTTAWA – Today, Democracy Watch renewed its call for a public inquiry into Elections Canada following a recent report highlighting major systemic issues with the 2011 federal election.  The report adds to the many reasons for a full investigation, and Democracy Watch has already filed a complaint with the federal Information Commissioner because the Commissioner of Canada Elections is hiding its rulings on more than 3,000 complaints it has received since 1997 about violations of the Canada Elections Act.

“The problems revealed by the federal election audit are likely only the tip of the iceberg of problems with past elections and by-elections given that Elections Canada is hiding its rulings on 3,000 complaints it has received since 1997, and so a full public inquiry is clearly needed,” said Tyler Sommers Coordinator of Democracy Watch.  “The law can, and must, be changed as soon as possible to prevent problems in the next election by requiring Elections Canada to correct the problems, conduct public audits after each election, and disclose all its past and future rulings on complaints.”

Last March, Democracy Watch requested under the federal Access to Information Act the ruling letters sent to complainants by the Commissioner of Canada Elections for a total of 2,982 complaints people have filed during elections since 1997.  Democracy Watch also requested the ruling letters Elections Canada has sent to an unknown number of people who filed complaints in-between elections (the total is unknown because Elections Canada does not disclose any information about complaints it receives in-between elections).

Almost all the other Officers of Parliament — the Auditor General of Canada, the Commissioner of Official Languages for Canada, the Information Commissioner, the Privacy Commissioner, and the Commissioner of Lobbying, are required to disclose final decisions/rulings (under 16.1 or 16.2 of the Access to Information Act).  Elections Canada has only had the discretionary right to refuse to disclose rulings since 2007 after the Conservatives weakened the Act by adding section 16.3 (the Ethics Commissioner is the other officer allowed, unfortunately, to make secret rulings).

“The public must see all of Elections Canada’s rulings to know whether it is an effective democracy watchdog or an ineffective lapdog,” said Sommers. “It is also completely contradictory and hypocritical for Elections Canada to commit to disclosing its rulings on every robocall complaint but refuse to disclose its rulings on other complaints.”

In addition to a full public inquiry, Democracy Watch is calling for the following key changes to ensure election laws across Canada are enforced properly and effectively:

• All election agencies must be required to regularly audit donations, spending by parties and candidates, and voting, and to conduct post-election audits after each general and by-election;
• The results of all audits and investigations into complaints or situations must be made public;
• Penalties for violating election laws must be increased to high amounts to discourage violators;
• A greater effort and better system for registering voters prior to the election must be established; and
• Rules around who can vote and how to handle potential voters who do not have proper identification must be clarified and the training process for election officials must be greatly improved.

More than 72,000 messages have been sent by Canadians to key politicians through Democracy Watch’s national letter-writing drive calling for clear requirements to disclose election complaint rulings, and for passage of other key measures for fair elections and strong enforcement.

Democracy Watch has also invited Canadians to send in the rulings they have received from Elections Canada, and will continue to push Elections Canada to disclose all its rulings as the public has a clear right to see the rulings that any law enforcement agency makes on any complaint.  If this information is kept secret, it is a recipe for abuse and corruption as it can allow any agency to hide a biased, unfair, discriminatory, ineffective or otherwise improper enforcement record.

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FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:
Tyler Sommers, Coordinator of Democracy Watch
Tel: (613) 241-5179
[email protected]

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Democracy Watch’s Enforce Fair Election Laws Campaign

Bribery provisions in Criminal Code cover offers of benefits in respect of future government actions, even if the government never does anything

Friday, April 26, 2013

OTTAWA – Today, Democracy Watch called on the Alberta government to have an independent special prosecutor determine whether charges should be laid in the case of political donations and communications from construction companies to Premier Alison Redford and former Premier Ed Stelmach.

“The Criminal Code anti-bribery provisions make it illegal to even offer any money directly or indirectly to any politician for their benefit in respect of anything to be done by that politician, even if the politician never does anything, and in my opinion the communications from the construction company representatives to the premiers cross that line because they link past donations, and future donations, to expected government actions,” said Duff Conacher, Board member of Democracy Watch and Adjunct Professor of Good Governance and Ethics Law at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law.  “Because the donations are to the premier and the ruling party, an independent special prosecutor is needed to determine whether charges should be laid, and given that there are very few past court rulings about these Criminal Code provisions, the special prosecutor should explain fully and publicly if they decide not to prosecute because it seems to me that a full examination of the evidence and detailed ruling by the courts is advisable in this situation.”

 

Clause 119(1)(b) of the Criminal Code of Canada states:

Corruption and disobedience

Bribery of judicial officers, etc.

119. (1) Every one is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding fourteen years who

(a) being the holder of a judicial office, or being a member of Parliament or of the legislature of a province, directly or indirectly, corruptly accepts, obtains, agrees to accept or attempts to obtain, for themselves or another person, any money, valuable consideration, office, place or employment in respect of anything done or omitted or to be done or omitted by them in their official capacity, or

(b) directly or indirectly, corruptly gives or offers to a person mentioned in paragraph (a), or to anyone for the benefit of that person, any money, valuable consideration, office, place or employment in respect of anything done or omitted or to be done or omitted by that person in their official capacity.

and clause 121(1)(a)(i) of the Criminal Code states:

Frauds on the government

121. (1) Every one commits an offence who

(a) directly or indirectly

(i) gives, offers or agrees to give or offer to an official or to any member of his family, or to any one for the benefit of an official, or

. . .

a loan, reward, advantage or benefit of any kind as consideration for cooperation, assistance, exercise of influence or an act or omission in connection with

(iii) the transaction of business with or any matter of business relating to the government, or

(iv) a claim against Her Majesty or any benefit that Her Majesty is authorized or is entitled to bestow,

whether or not, in fact, the official is able to cooperate, render assistance, exercise influence or do or omit to do what is proposed, as the case may be; . . .”

 

As reported by CBC, one construction company official sent Premier Stelmach a letter that states: “We continue to support the Conservative Party in whatever way we can, and please don’t hesitate to contact us and advise us on what we may be able to do to enhance our support of the party and/or support the implementation of these or other initiatives” and the initiatives referred to were appointments to the Alberta Labour Relations Board, infrastructure spending, and changes to labour regulations and legislation.

The other construction company official sent Premier Redford’s staff person an email that stated that two construction companies “. . . both made major contributions to Ms. Redford’s leadership campaign and to the PC’s election campaign fund (in Ledcor’s case up to the legislated maximum). Other members of our coalition were also significant supporters of both the Premier and the PC Party . . . I appreciate that there are huge demands on the Premier’s time and that it is difficult to arrange meetings with her.  However, there will be considerable disappointment and possibly misgivings within our coalition if I do not have something concrete to report next week” concerning developments in the review and change of the provincial labour code.

Given these and other very questionable recent situations involving political donations in Alberta, Democracy Watch also called on the Alberta government to democratize the political finance system in Alberta by:

• banning donations and loans from businesses and other organizations to any party or candidate (including party leadership candidates, and municipal candidates and parties);
• limiting individual donations, loans and gifts to a very low amount (no more than $200 annually);
• requiring disclosure of all donations, loans and gifts received by any party and any type of candidate, whether or not the donation or gift is used for a campaign;
• requiring disclosure of the employer and major affiliations of all individual donors (to prevent businesses and other organizations from funnelling donations through their employees, executives, board members and their families);
• establishing a base level of per-vote public financing for political parties (no more than 50 cents per vote), and;
• requiring Elections Alberta to conduct regular audits of donation patterns to reveal violations and track connections between donations and government actions.

“While the corrupting, democracy-undermining influence of secret money and bribes can unfortunately never be stopped, the Alberta government can help a lot by banning business and organization donations and loans to political parties and candidates, setting a very low limit for individual donations and loans, requiring disclosure of all donations, loans and gifts, establishing public financing, and strengthening enforcement,” said Tyler Sommers, Coordinator of Democracy Watch.

Other than in Quebec, donation limits across Canada are much too high, and other than federally and in Manitoba and Quebec corporations and unions and other organizations are allowed to donate.  As well, other than at the federal level and in Ontario, donation disclosure rules are much too weak (and even those jurisdictions have loopholes in their disclosure rules).

And across the country, election agencies either lack investigation and auditing powers, or are failing to do regular audits, and penalties are too weak, all of which encourages violations.

Democracy Watch and its nation-wide Money in Politics Coalition, made up of 50 citizen groups with a total membership of 3 million Canadians, will continue pushing until all laws across Canada prevent the undue influence of money in politics, and the key democratic principle of one person, one vote is upheld in our political finance system.

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FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:

Tyler Sommers, Coordinator of Democracy Watch

Tel: 613-241-5179

Email: [email protected]

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Democracy Watch’s Money in Politics Campaign

A representative of a coalition of construction companies and anti-union contractors lobbied Premier Alison Redford by linking large political donations to Redford and to the provincial Conservative party with political promises to revise Alberta’s labour code, according to documents obtained through Freedom of Information.

Thursday, April 25, 2013

OTTAWA – Today, Democracy Watch and the Government Ethics Coalition set out 10 reasons Canadians should be concerned about the current review of federal ethics rules by the House of Commons Ethics Committee, and proposed 30 key changes to the rules, enforcement and penalties needed to have ethical federal politics.

The 10 reasons are as follows (and there are 200 cases total that reveal serious flaws):

1. Finance Minister Jim Flaherty could own bank stock and push to keep bank interest rates, and profits, up (in fact, he already has pushed to keep mortgage rates up), because of a huge loophole in federal ethics rules that allows ministers, their staff, appointees and government officials to profit from their decisions as long as their decision is of “general application” (the cases of Nigel Wright and Andrew Cash also show clearly that this huge loophole must be closed because the loophole means federal ethics rules do not apply to 99% of decisions and actions by policy-makers – a new rule prohibiting even being in an appearance of a conflict of interest must be passed;
2. Everything unethical that former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney did with arms lobbyist Karlheinz Schreiber is still legal (the federal Conservatives haven’t even responded to the recommendations made in the May 2010 report of the Oliphant Commission);
3. A federal politician, staff person, appointee or senior government official could blatantly lie to the public every day, and even though the Prime Minister’s own guide says that is wrong, no one can file a complaint that will result in a ruling and penalty for being a misleader;
4. At least 50 federal Cabinet ministers have been let off the hook in the past 20 years, along with dozens of MPs, senators, political staff, Cabinet appointees and government officials, for doing things that any reasonable person would say were unethical, and the federal Ethics Commissioner is a czar whose rulings, no matter how flawed, cannot be challenged in court;
5. More than 100 federal Cabinet ministers, Cabinet staff, and senior government officials have left their positions since 2008 and federal Ethics Commissioner Mary Dawson and Commissioner of Lobbying Karen Shepherd have no idea what they are doing or if they are complying with the five-year ban on being a registered lobbyist (because there is no requirement in the rules to report to the commissioners during the five-year period);
6. Any member of the public could give federal Ethics Commissioner Mary Dawson clear evidence of Prime Minister Harper making a decision that helps his wife, and Commissioner Dawson doesn’t have to investigate (she is only required to investigate when an MP or senator files a complaint);
7. Christian Paradis, Jim Flaherty, Lloyd Sullivan, Colin Carrie and Eve Adams were found guilty of violating federal law – the Conflict of Interest Act – and none of them has paid any penalty of any kind;
8. Federal Ethics Commissioner Dawson has made 80 secret rulings since 2007 – some of which are likely hiding serious violations of the Act, MPs code or Senate Code;
9. Bruce Carson, Rahim Jaffer, and more than 80 others have been caught but have not been prosecuted for failing to register as lobbyists, and there are likely many more, and;
10. Many federal lobbyists know other people who are lobbying illegally, but the Commissioner of Lobbying doesn’t do audits of Cabinet ministers’ communications with stakeholders and so has no chance of catching these illegal lobbyists.

“Canadians are justifiably outraged that politicians across Canada for the past 145 years have failed to pass strong, clear, transparent ethics rules that are well-enforced with mandatory high penalties, and that this failure has allowed dozens of politicians and public officials to be let off the hook when they have clearly violated the rules or done something that most people find unethical, including at least 50 federal Cabinet ministers in the past 20 years, and many other politicians just in the past month,” said Tyler Sommers, Coordinator of Democracy Watch. “The committee reviewing federal ethics rules must, finally, take a much-needed step forward and set a new national standard with strong reports calling for changes to close loopholes, clear up rules, strengthen transparency and enforcement, and increase penalties.”

“Dishonesty, unethical fundraising and unethical decision-making in politics are all legal across Canada, and Canadians are more likely to get caught parking their car illegally than politicians are likely to get caught violating key ethics rules, and the penalties for illegal parking are often higher than for being an unethical politician or government official,” said Duff Conacher, Board member of Democracy Watch.  “This dangerously undemocratic fiasco must finally be stopped with clear, strong rules and enforcement and penalties.”

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FOR MORE INFORMATION:

Tyler Sommers, Coordinator of Democracy Watch

Tel: 613-241-5179

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Democracy Watch’s Government Ethics Campaign

Alberta passed new law quickly last fall; federal Liberals and NDP have introduced bills (both opposed by the Conservatives); and Elections Canada has proposed changes

More than 68,000 messages sent in letter-writing drive for robocall law – inquiry into weak election law enforcement also needed

Friday, April 19, 2013

OTTAWA – Today, as Democracy Watch’s online counter shows, the federal Conservatives have now violated for seven months Parliament’s deadline for introducing a bill to restrict election fraud robocalls and strengthen election law enforcement, including delaying the bill again this week.  More than 68,000 messages have been sent through Democracy Watch’s robocall law letter-writing drive – and Democracy Watch called on the Conservatives to end their negligence and introduce the bill next week.

Democracy Watch also called for a public inquiry into Elections Canada’s weak and secretive enforcement of the elections law going back 15 years (See details below).

The Conservatives ongoing excuses for delaying the robocall bill are ridiculous given that:

• the federal Liberals introduced private member Bill C-424 last May to increase fines for false robocalls and other fraudulent attempts to sway voters from $2,000-$5,000 up to $20,000 to $50,000 (the Conservatives killed the bill on Nov. 21);
• the federal NDP introduced private member Bill C-453 last October to prohibit false robocalls during federal elections and strengthen enforcement (the Conservatives have blocked the bill from moving forward);
• the Alberta Conservative government has introduced and passed Bill 7 last Nov.-Dec. which, among other changes, requires the sponsor of any robocall to clearly identify themselves and their contact phone number and political party affiliation in the call (s. 46 changed s. 134 of the province’s Election Act), and;
• Elections Canada proposed changes three weeks ago to ban fraud robocalls.

“The federal Conservatives are being dangerously undemocratic and negligent in failing to comply with the unanimous resolution to ban election fraud robocalls,” said Tyler Sommers, Coordinator of Democracy Watch.

The House of Commons passed a resolution unanimously last March setting a deadline of the end of September for the Conservatives to introduce the bill.

Democracy Watch is calling for a law that:

• requires anyone who transmits an election-related robocall to confirm the identity of the person or organization who makes or pays for the call, and;
• establishes a mandatory penalty for anyone who wins an election through election fraud of the loss of their seat and a ban on running in another election for at least five years.

False robocalls were received by tens of thousands of voters in more than 230 ridings during the spring 2011 federal election, and were also used to mislead voters in some provincial elections

Measures to make false robocalls illegal and essentially impossible will help, but there are also enforcement problems.  Elections Canada and the Director of Public Prosecutions have charged one person for false robocalls from the 2011 federal election, but there are serious questions about Elections Canada’s enforcement over the past 15 years.

Elections Canada has refused to disclose the rulings it has made on more than 2,000 complaints it received from 1997 to 2010, and more than 1,000 complaints it received during the 2011 federal election.  Democracy Watch has filed a complaint with the federal Information Commissioner about Elections Canada’s excessive secrecy.  Elections Canada has also recently made some very questionable rulings.

Elections Canada must be required to disclose every ruling it makes to ensure that it proves it is enforcing the law fairly and properly (and election agencies across Canada must also be required to disclose all their rulings)

Democracy Watch is calling on Canadians to send a letter and to sign the petition that both call not only on federal politicians to introduce and pass a law to stop false election robocalls and strengthen enforcement, but also for politicians in every province and territory to pass similar laws that apply to their provincial, territorial and municipal elections.

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FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:

Tyler Sommers, Coordinator of Democracy Watch

Tel: 613-241-5179

Email: [email protected]

Internet: http://democracywatch.ca

Text of March 2012 House of Commons Resolution

The  March 2012 resolution that passed the House of Commons unanimously was introduced by New Democrat MP David Christopherson, and it committed the Conservative government to make three changes to the Elections Canada Act by Sept. 12, 2012:

• Give Elections Canada stronger investigative powers, including the ability to force political parties to provide supporting documents for their expenses;
• Require all telecommunication companies that provide voter contact services during a general election to register with Elections Canada, and;
• Make telecommunication companies identify and verify the identity of election clients.

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Democracy Watch’s Stop Election Fraud Robocalls Campaign

This week, Mr. Uppal announced he is delaying the tabling of a bill to reform the Election Act because he wants to incorporate changes recommended by Marc Mayrand, the Chief Electoral Officer. “We will take the time necessary to get the legislation right,” the minister said in a statement.

Surveys show proposals supported by large majority of Canadians, and also endorsed by national coalitions made up of 140 citizen groups with more than 3 million total members

April 15, 2013

OTTAWA – Today, Democracy Watch congratulated Justin Trudeau on becoming leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, and called on him not only to keep the democratic reform promises he made during the campaign but also to make many more changes that a large majority of Canadians support in keeping his commitments to “reform our political institutions” and in “reconciling the environment and our economy”.  Democracy Watch set out detailed proposals for keeping these commitments.

Mr. Trudeau promised to: open nominations in all ridings and not appoint candidates; free MPs to vote against Cabinet unless the bill is an election platform, budget or Charter of Rights measure; end the use of omnibus bills; not prorogue Parliament to avoid accountability; increase House committees’ independence and resources; support changing election voting system; ban partisan government advertising, and; make the Parliamentary Budget Officer fully independent as well as strengthen other democratic good government watchdogs.

“Justin Trudeau has promised to democratize the Liberal Party and federal government in a few ways and to make a sustainable economy a priority, but will he promise and follow through on making these and many more specific changes that surveys show a large majority of Canadians want to ensure democratic, ethical politics and corporate responsibility,” said Tyler Sommers, Coordinator of Democracy Watch.  “The Liberals can show they are actually committed to requiring everyone in politics and big business to act honestly, openly, ethically, representatively and sustainably by proposing bills between now and the next federal election that detail the changes they would make if they win that election.”

Democracy Watch called on Mr. Trudeau and the Liberals to propose bills that make the following key changes to close 100 undemocratic and accountability loopholes in the federal government, and to require everyone in federal politics and big business to act honestly, openly, ethically, representatively and sustainably:

Democratic Good Government Changes

1. Require all politicians, their staff, appointees to tell the truth (as federal public servants are required to do by their Values and Ethics Code), including prohibiting politicians from switching parties between elections only to advance their career, and allow complaints about dishonesty to the Ethics Commissioner with high penalties for violators, and enact measures to make fraud robocalls impossible;
2. Ensure all government and government-funded institutions, including politicians’ offices, are open by requiring them to create records detailing all their actions and decisions (as in the UK, U.S., Australia and New Zealand) and to disclose all their communications with anyone trying to influence their decisions (whether or not they are a registered lobbyist), and by giving the Information Commissioner the power to order the disclosure of any record (as in the UK, B.C., Ontario and Quebec) if it is in the public interest and would not cause any actual harm to anyone or any organization (as in B.C. and Alberta), and the power to fine violators and require systemic changes to improve access (as in the UK), and; by fully protecting whistleblowers and allowing government scientists to speak freely about their research;
3. Ensure everyone in politics is ethical by ensuring all politicians, their staff and appointees are required (as federal public servants are): to avoid apparent conflicts of interest (even when making general application decisions), to refuse gifts, and to refrain from lobbying the government after leaving their position for a period of time determined based on their former decision-making power, and by further restricting political donations, and by establishing high penalties for violators and requiring the Ethics Commissioner (and Elections Canada) to rule publicly on every complaint and unethical situation that arises;
4. Ensure everyone in politics is representative by: changing the election and parliamentary voting systems in key ways; requiring meaningful public consultation before every significant government decision; establishing a Public Appointments Commission to ensure merit-based Cabinet appointments; requiring the approval of a majority of party leaders for the appointment of every officer of Parliament; freeing and empowering MPs; creating broad-based, representative citizen watchdog groups for every major government and industry sector, and; abolishing the Senate;
5. Ensure everyone in politics is waste-preventing by: making the Parliamentary Budget Officer fully independent and fully empowered (including to order the release of information needed for spending assessments); strengthening spending rules especially by eliminating loopholes that allow for unjustifiable sole-source contracts; requiring pre-approval by the Auditor General of major spending processes to ensure they follow all the rules; requiring everyone to submit a detailed receipt for expenses, and giving the Auditor General the resources, and requiring him/her, to audit all government and government-funded institutions (including politicians’ offices) at least once every three years;
6. Ensure everyone in politics is accountable by: creating broad-based, representative citizen watchdog groups for every major government and industry sector; allowing a majority of party leaders to initiate a public inquiry into the government’s actions; ensuring anyone can challenge the rulings of all democratic good government watchdog agencies in court; enacting strict rules on the opening and closing of the legislature;

Corporate Responsibility Changes

1. Ensure all businesses are honest by strengthening false advertising rules, enforcement by the Competition Bureau, and penalties;
2. Ensure all businesses are open by requiring full disclosure in a searchable Internet database of all wrongdoing by all businesses, and by fully protecting whistleblowers;
3. Ensure all businesses are ethical by passing a law that prohibits Free Trade deals that are not Fair Trade deals (and amends current Free Trade deals to include fair trade measures), and by requiring independent audits of banks’ lending, investment and service records, and audits of all businesses to ensure gouging is prohibited;
4. Ensure all businesses are representative by creating broad-based, representative citizen watchdog groups for every major industry sector, and; by requiring everyone in business (especially banks and other financial institutions) to consider all stakeholders’ interests when they make decisions (especially lending, investment and insurance decisions) and to account publicly for how they do this, and; by prohibiting CEOs from playing any role in the selection of board members;
5. Ensure all businesses are waste-preventing by phasing out subsidies to polluting businesses, and requiring public disclosure of the expenses of all executives;
6. Ensure all businesses are accountable by creating citizen watchdog groups for every major industry sector, and increasing penalties including prohibiting any business that violates the law from receiving any government contracts or subsidies or tax breaks.

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FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:

Tyler Sommers, Coordinator of Democracy Watch
Tel: (613) 241-5179
[email protected]

Democracy Watch’s Campaigns page

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