We, the undersigned, international scholars and political
scientists, are concerned that Canada’s international reputation as one of the
world’s guardians of democracy and human rights is threatened by passage of the
proposed Fair Elections Act.
We believe that this Act would prove [to]
be deeply damaging for electoral integrity within Canada, as well as providing
an example which, if emulated elsewhere, may potentially harm international
standards of electoral rights around the world.
In particular, the governing party in
Canada has proposed a set of wide-ranging changes, which if enacted, would, we
believe, undermine the integrity of the Canadian electoral process, diminish
the effectiveness of Elections Canada, reduce voting rights, expand the role of
money in politics, and foster partisan bias in election administration.
The bill seeks to rewrite many major laws and
regulations governing elections in Canada. These major changes would reduce
electoral integrity, as follows:
Elections
Canada: The proposed Act significantly diminishes the effectiveness of
Elections Canada, a non-partisan agency, in the fair administration of
elections and the investigation of electoral infractions by:
· Severely limiting the ability of the
Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) to communicate with the public, thereby
preventing the CEO from encouraging voting and civic participation, and publishing
research reports
· Removing the enforcement arm of the
agency, the Commissioner of Elections, from Elections Canada, and placing it in
the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), a government
department
· Prohibiting the Commissioner from
communicating with the public about the details of any investigation
· Preventing any details about the
Commissioner’s investigations from being included in the DPP’s annual report on
the Commissioner’s activities – a report that the DPP provides to the Attorney
General (AG), and which the AG forwards to Parliament
· Failing to provide the Commissioner with
the power to compel witness testimony (a significant obstacle in a recent
investigation of electoral fraud)
Right
to Vote: The proposed Act diminishes the ability of citizens to vote in
elections by:
· Prohibiting the use of vouching to
establish a citizen’s eligibility to vote
· Prohibiting the use of Voter Information
Cards to establish a citizen’s identity or residency
The prohibition against vouching is
ostensibly to reduce voter fraud yet there is no evidence, as affirmed by the
Neufeld Report on Compliance Review, that vouching results in voter fraud.
These changes to the voter eligibility rules will disproportionately impact
seniors, students, the economically disadvantaged, and First Nations citizens,
leading to an estimated disenfranchisement of over 120,000 citizens.
Money
in Politics: The proposed Act expands the role of money in elections by:
· Exempting “fundraising expenses” from the
spending limits for political parties, thereby creating a potential loophole
and weakening enforcement
· Failing to require political parties to
provide supporting documentation for their expenses, even though the parties
are reimbursed over $30 million after every election
· Increasing the caps on individual
donations from $1200 to $1500 per calendar year
· Increasing the caps on candidates’
contributions to their own campaigns from $1200 to $5000 per election for
candidates and $25,000 per election for leadership contestants
· Creating a gap between the allowable
campaign contributions of ordinary citizens and the contributions of candidates
to their own campaigns, and thus increasing the influence of personal wealth in
elections
Partisan
Bias: The proposed Act fosters partisan bias and politicization by:
· Enabling the winning political party to
recommend names for poll supervisors, thereby politicizing the electoral
process and introducing the possibility of partisan bias
· By exempting “fundraising expenses”
(communications with electors who have previously donated over $20 to a party)
from “campaign spending,” creating a bias in favour of parties with longer
lists of donors above this threshold – currently, the governing party
The substance of the Fair Elections Act
raises significant concerns with respect to the future of electoral integrity
in Canada. The process by which the proposed Act is being rushed into law in
Parliament has also sparked considerable concern. The governing political party
has used its majority power to cut off debate and discussion in an effort to
enact the bill as soon as possible. By contrast, the conventional approach to
reforming the electoral apparatus in Canada has always involved widespread consultation
with Elections Canada, the opposition parties and the citizens at large, as
well as with the international community.
In conclusion, we, the undersigned, ask
that the proposed legislation should be revised so that contests in Canada
continue to meet the highest international standards of electoral integrity.
Yours sincerely,
Professor Shaun Bowler, University of
California, Riverside, US
Professor Brian Costar, Swinburne
University, Melbourne, Australia
Professor Ivor Crewe, University College,
Oxford, UK
Professor Jorgen Elklit, Aarhus University,
Denmark
Professor David Farrell, University
College, Dublin, Ireland
Professor Andrew Geddis, University of
Otago, New Zealand
Professor Lisa Hill, University of
Adelaide, Australia
Professor Ronald Inglehart, University of
Michigan, US
Professor Judith Kelley, Duke University,
US
Professor Alexander Keyssar, Harvard
University, US
Dr. Ron Levy, Australian National
University, Australia
Professor Richard Matland, University of
Illinois, US
Professor Dan Meagher, Deakin University,
Australia
Dr. Jenni Newton-Farrelly, Swinburne
University, Melbourne, Australia
Professor Pippa Norris, Harvard and Sydney
Universities, US/Australia
Professor Graeme Orr, University of
Queensland, Australia
Professor Andrew Reynolds, University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill, US
Professor Ken Sherrill, Hunter College,
City University of New York, US
Professor Daniel Tokaji, The Ohio State
University, US
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