Posts
Canada:
5 things you need to know about Orwellian "Fair" Elections
Act
4
February, 2014
The
Conservative government on Tuesday tabled their
so-called Fair Elections Act in the House of Commons -- 70
weeks late.
Pierre
Poilievre, the minister of state for democratic reform, claimed the
changes will "increase democracy." Twenty-four hours later,
Poilievre moved on Wednesday to cut
off
the democratic debate about the bill in the House of Commons.
On
Thursday, the Harper government shut down the debate.
This
is just the beginning of the government's doubespeak on this file.
Given
the Conservatives' track record of
ignoring or circumventing
Canada's electoral law, it's worth fact-checking the spin, so here
are 5 things you need to know about the legislation.
1.
Conservatives did not consult Elections Canada
On
the eve of tabling the bill, Poilievre stood up in the House of
Commons on Monday to declare that the government had consulted
with Chief Electoral Officer Marc Mayrand. "I did meet
with the CEO of Elections Canada some time ago and we had a terrific
and a very long meeting, at which I listened carefully to all of his
ideas," Poilievre declared. Not so, Mayrand's office shot back
within minutes.
"The
chief electoral officer has not been consulted," Elections
Canada spokesman John
Enright
said. "There's been no consultation on the contents of the
bill."
Tough
start.
2.
Elections Canada wanted investigative powers: request denied and then
some.
Elections
Canada, facing an intransigent Conservative Party during its
investigations, wanted investigative powers. Instead, the bill is
proposing to take
away
power from the agency by moving the Commissioner of Canada Elections
office to within the Director of Public Prosecutions.
"The
referee should not be wearing a team jersey," Poilievre
explained, revealing the government views the non-partisan,
independent agency as an opponent.
The
Ottawa
Citizen editorial board says
this move should be analyzed through the prism of the agency's voter
suppression investigation into fraudulent robocalls in Guelph (using
the Conservative Party database of voters) during the 2011 election.
"With
another election coming soon, Canadians still don't know what really
happened in 2011 or who was responsible. Mayrand has said that the
Commissioner of Canada Elections should have the power to compel
testimony; this bill does not create that."
3.
The bill "closes loopholes to big money"... by raising
donation and spending limits?
The
legislation proposes to increase the maximum donation limit to $1,500
annually, up from the current $1,200. This back and forth from an
Ottawa Citizen editorial writer and a columnist sums it up:
I
like how the government spins increasing donation and spending limits
as "keeping big money out" of politics #cdnpoli
04
Feb
Kate Heartfield @kateheartfield I like how the government spins increasing donation and spending limits as "keeping big money out" of politics #cdnpoli
Kate Heartfield @kateheartfield I like how the government spins increasing donation and spending limits as "keeping big money out" of politics #cdnpoli
@kateheartfield
War is peace.
So
what will this mean?
Fewer
people earning a modest income are able to scrounge together anywhere
close to the current limit. And which party is best positioned to
take advantage of a higher limit? In the
first nine months of 2013,
the Conservatives had 10,780 donations worth $200 or more, the
Liberals had 7,133, and the NDP had 3,492.
On
the spending side, Kady O'Malley of CBC News and the Ottawa Citizen's
Glen McGregor explain the campaign spending loophole:
Also,
the costs of calling past donors who gave $20 or more will not be
considered a campaign expense. Weird. Call it the RMG provision.
I'm
not sure I see why costs for fundraising from anyone who has donated
$20 within the last 5 years should be exempt from expense limits.
4.
Make it harder for First Nations, youth and poor people to vote
The
bill proposes to tighten up voter identification rules and to
eliminate the practice of "vouching" for other voters who
lack proper identification at polling stations. It isn't tough to
figure out who is likely
not
to have government-issued ID: First Nations, students and people who
live in poverty.
"One
might have thought that when the Conservative government finally got
around to reforming election law, it would be to try to prevent the
kind of voter suppression and electoral fraud Canada saw in the 2011
election. But when they said they would make it harder to break the
rules, it seems they were talking about cracking down on homeless
voters, not party bagmen," the Citizen
wrote Tuesday to prove a point.
The
bill also proposes to ban Elections Canada advertising to encourage
people to vote.
5.
Rush and cut off the debate on complex legislation
Procedural
and data wizard Alice Funke of Pundits' Guide sums this up.
Sorry,
the govt is tabling a huge bill on Electoral Reform today, w/no
consultation, & 2nd reading starts TOMORROW??? Alarm bells !!!
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.