Conservatives not helping Elections Canada on robocalls, election-law reform

OTTAWA—Federal Conservatives have been dragging their feet in helping Elections Canada get to the bottom of alleged fraud in the 2011 campaign, according to Canada’s chief electoral officer, Marc Mayrand.

And the Conservative government hasn’t consulted with Elections Canada on reforms that Mayrand says are urgently needed to be turned into law by next spring, if Canada is to avoid the kind of dirty tricks and alleged fraud still hanging over the last election.

Mayrand confirmed the stalling tactics by Conservatives in a Commons committee appearance on Tuesday and elaborated afterward to reporters on why it is taking Elections Canada so long to investigate the hundreds of reports of fraudulent “robocalls” in the 2011 election.

“Basically, in some cases, appointments are cancelled at the last minute,” Mayrand said. “People who have agreed suddenly decide they don’t want to meet with the investigator. That adds time, delays and makes the investigation a little bit more complex than need be.”

The chief electoral officer also confirmed reports that it took the Conservatives’ lawyer three months to reply to requests for interviews of party members linked to the robocalls case, which began in Guelph but has now spread to more than 240 ridings across Canada.

Mayrand’s report echoes findings in a Federal Court ruling last week, in which Judge Richard Mosley criticized the Conservatives for obstructive tactics and “trench warfare” in a court challenge revolving around robocalls in the 2011 election.

Mosley ruled that while there was no evidence the Conservatives condoned the calls, it was clear that the fraudulent calls were made using the party’s database of voter-contact information known as CIMS (Constituent Information Management System.)

Mayrand chose his words carefully in his testimony to the Commons committee on Tuesday, but he left little doubt that Conservatives are being less than co-operative with Elections Canada on either robocalls or the overhaul of elections laws that Mayrand has been seeking.

“We are all concerned with the delays in those investigations and the fact that justice delayed is justice denied,” Mayrand said.

Mayrand said that some of his proposed reforms to election laws would make it easier for the commissioner of Elections Canada to do his investigation, especially in the area of compelling people to testify.

“The investigations into deceptive calls have made us keenly aware that the Commissioner of Canada Elections needs better tools to do his work,” Mayrand said. “Good rules are of little use if they cannot be enforced.”

The NDP’s democratic-reform critic, MP Craig Scott, said Mayrand had painted a disturbing picture of the Conservatives’ attitude toward election law and the robocalls investigation.

“I have every reason to believe that the pattern of non-co-operation with him on legislative reform has its parallel in complete non-co-operation in investigating what happened with that Conservative database,” Scott told reporters afterward.

The Conservatives’ minister for democratic reform, Tim Uppal, has said he is reviewing Mayrand’s recommendations for long-awaited legislation to modernize and clean up the election laws. Though Uppal announced earlier this spring that legislation was on the way, the announcement was abruptly cancelled at the last minute and there’s no word yet on when it will be introduced.

Original Article
Source: thestar.com
Author: Susan Delacourt