No need to wait for final report of Hogue Inquiry into foreign interference due at end of January

Foreign “proxies” allowed to spend unlimited funds in secret in nomination and party leadership contests, including on disinformation campaigns, and to hide their funders, and to fundraise in secret, and high donation limits make it easy to funnel big money amounts into political system

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Thursday, November 21, 2024

OTTAWA – Today, as Elections Canada officials testify before the House Procedure and House Affairs Committee, Democracy Watch released the submission it has filed with the Committee calling for 20 key changes to Bill C-65 to close, as soon as possible, some of the huge loopholes in Canada’s election law that allow for secret, undemocratic and unethical spending, fundraising, donations, loans, and disinformation campaigns by foreign “proxies”.

Many of these loopholes can be closed by strengthening Bill C-65.  There is no need to wait for the final report at the end of January of the Hogue Inquiry into foreign interference, which Democracy Watch participated in as an intervener.

Democracy Watch already testified on November 5th before the Committee.  Among the 20 key changes Democracy Watch’s calls on the Committee to make to Bill C-65, all of which are legal amendments, are the following overall sets of changes:

1. Prohibit all false claims made by anyone at any time anywhere about elections and other processes in Canada, including false election promises by parties and party leaders;

2. Prohibit the publishing of survey results in the few days before the election, given how easy it is to mislead voters with an invalid survey;

3. Prohibit foreign influence activities that are currently legal;

4. Prohibit foreigners and people under age 18 from voting in nomination and party leadership contests

5. Require third parties to register and disclose all their donors and spending if they spend more than $100 during a nomination contest, party leadership contest, or during a pre-election period, election period or policy-making process, including trying to influence political party officials, and prohibit them from colluding with contestants;

6. Only allow a third-party individual to spend $100, and citizen groups to spend an amount based on how many voters support them, and prohibit businesses from spending at all, during contests, elections and policy-making processes, and;

7. Only allow citizen group third parties to spend money raised from Canadian citizens and permanent residents.

“Bill C-65 proposes some ineffective half-measures aimed at stopping the influence of wealthy interests, disinformation and foreign interference, and MPs on the committee should take the opportunity to strengthen these measures and make other key changes to close many other huge, unethical and undemocratic loopholes in Canada’s election law,” said Duff Conacher, Co-founder of Democracy Watch.  “There is no need to wait for the final report of the inquiry into foreign interference at the end of January when these changes can be made now through Bill C-65.”

Many more changes are needed to ensure fair, democratic, ethical elections, and to stop foreign interference, and Democracy Watch’s final submission to the Hogue Inquiry called on the Inquiry’s final report to recommend these changes (Click here to see details), including:

1. Prohibit anonymous social media accounts and Internet sites, and bots;

2. Prohibit media and social media outlets from allowing posts with false claims, including fake videos and audio files;

3. Have complaints about disinformation go to federal agencies, boards, commissions and tribunals (ABCTs) that already have expertise in various issue areas;

4. Empower the ABCTs to order Internet and social media companies to remove false posts and webpages, and to block sites that refuse to remove or prevent false claims from being posted on their site;

5. Empower the ABCTs to penalize misleaders and misleading social media companies and websites with significant fines;

6. Lower the annual donation and loan limit to $75 which is the amount that 75% of donors give, as DWatch’s study of donations from 2016-2022 showed (to match Quebec’s world-leading $100 donation limit);

7. Prohibit financial institutions from making loans (if parties can prove they need more funds than they can raise from voters in $75 donations, establish matching and per-vote public funding and a public loan fund to close the gap);

8. Prohibit giving fake jobs, compensation or other benefits or advantages to anyone who is considering running in a nomination or party leadership contest, and to contestants, election candidates or political party officials;

9. Prohibit donations to nomination contestants, candidates and electoral district associations (EDAs) from outside the electoral district;

10. Require disclosure of all the identity of all donors/lenders and the amount donated/loaned, and spending, before voting begins, and require quarterly disclosure between elections of donations, loans and spending by EDAs and parties;

11. Require public disclosure of staff, top-level volunteers, fundraisers (and amounts raised and how) by nomination contestants, candidates, EDAs and parties, and disclosure of all volunteers to Elections Canada.

12. Close all the loopholes that currently allow for secret lobbying, and prohibit lobbyists from sponsoring interns in MP offices;

13. Reverse the changes made to the Lobbyists’ Code last year so lobbyists will again be prohibited from fundraising, campaigning and assisting politicians and party leaders, and;

14. Prohibit politicians, their staff, Cabinet appointees and government employees from having outside jobs, secret investments, and from accepting gifts or other benefits, and prohibit them from taking part in decision-making processes when they have even an appearance of a conflict of interest.

15. Make all enforcement ABCTs, including the RCMP and CSIS, fully independent from Cabinet, with the heads appointed through an independent process, and require them to do regular, random audits, to issue public rulings after reviewing any situation, and make them accountable to the courts for proper enforcement of whichever law they enforce.

“The only way to stop foreign big money from flowing into Canada’s political finance system is to stop big money donations and loans,” said Duff Conacher, Co-founder of Democracy Watch.  “As long as big money donations and loans are allowed, it will be easy for foreign governments, businesses and organizations to funnel large amounts of money secretly to nomination and party leadership contestants, election candidates, riding associations and parties.”

“Loopholes in key laws mean third-party businesses, organizations and individuals are currently allowed to spend an unlimited amount of money in secret supporting or opposing nomination and party leadership contestants, to hide the identity of their funders, and to lobby Cabinet ministers, government officials, politicians and political party officials in secret, unethical ways,” said Duff Conacher, Co-founder of Democracy Watch.  “These loopholes must be closed or third parties will continue to be used as fronts for foreign governments and entities to interfere in and influence Canadian elections and government policy-making processes in secret, unethical and undemocratic ways.”

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

Democracy Watch’s Stop Foreign Interference in Canadian Politics Campaign and Honesty in Politics Campaign and Money in Politics Campaign and Stop Secret Unethical Lobbying Campaign and Government Ethics Campaign and Stop Bad Government Appointments Campaign