In uncharacteristically frank remarks, Mayrand responded to suggestions of political bias against Elections Canada made by Democratic Reform Minister Pierre Poilievre, who said earlier this week that it was important that the referee of fair elections not wear a team jersey.
“The only jersey I think I’m wearing, if we have to carry the analogy, I believe is the one with the stripes, white and black,” Mayrand said, grimacing as a reporter paraphrased Poilievre’s remark to him.
“What I know from this bill is that the referee will no longer be on the ice.”
Later, in the House of Commons, Poilievre said his referee metaphor was not in reference to Mayrand but to the Commissioner of Canada Elections, the independent official within Elections Canada who investigates allegations of wrongdoing.
With the Fair Elections Act, the Conservatives introduced their long-awaited changes to the elections law that they promised during the height of the robocalls scandal in 2012.
Mayrand stressed that he was still reviewing the “massive” piece of legislation, but said he was worried that “there are some provisions there that seem to be limiting access for certain categories of voters.”
The law would end the practice of “vouching” — allowing voters to cast ballots if another elector vouches that they are qualified — and no longer allow the use of voter cards sent out by Elections Canada as valid ID at the polling station.
“Electors still have a challenge producing proper identification at the polls,” Mayrand said.
“Groups that come to mind are aboriginals, young people, even seniors, who are increasing in terms of population and have increasing difficulty producing proper ID documents.”
Mayrand’s remarks came on a day when the opposition New Democrats vowed to use procedural tactics in Parliament to slow down passage of a bill they call anti-democratic.
After the Conservatives moved to limit debate on the legislation on Wednesday, the NDP tried to have the House adjourned, and the party’s MPs voted extremely slowly as the motion was defeated.
NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair called the bill “an anti-democratic stain” that was written to stack the deck in the Conservatives’ favour.
“The reality is the Conservative government is making it harder for people to vote,” he said.
Mulcair said the NDP would like to see extensive cross-country consultations on the bill, as it goes to the heart of the democratic system.
Poilievre said the NDP expressed opposition to the bill before they even knew what it contained.
“Now they are saying they want more debate, so we are saying, that is great, let us send it to committee so that it can be debated and studied there, and they are opposed to that, too,” Poilievre said during question period.
Mayrand says he was not particularly worried that the legislation would see the commissioner moved to the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions at the Department of Justice, but was concerned that the commissioner’s investigative powers were not increased, as he had suggested in a report last year.
“What worries me, I must say, is whether the commissioner will get the tool box he needs to do his job and I’m afraid that I don’t see it in the act that is currently written,” Mayrand said.
“There is no enhancement of transparency of political parties in the new legislation. I believe the commissioner doesn’t get the authority to compel witnesses.”
Under the current law, candidates must provided detailed spending reports but federal parties, with exponentially larger budgets, are required to provide only a limited public summary of their campaign spending.
Commissioner of Canada Elections Yves Cote last year said that his inability to legally compel witnesses was hampering the investigation of more than 1,400 complaints about false or misleading telephone calls to electors in the 2011 election. So far, only one person — a young Conservative campaign staffer from Guelph — has been charged in the robocalls scandal.
Charges to the law are “fundamental as to the legitimacy of those who govern us,” Mayrand said.
“The Elections Act is all about democracy and the democracy we want in this country.”
Mayrand also spoke to provisions in the bill that would effectively muzzle him by limiting his ability to speak publicly. He said it would end his agency’s ability to survey Canadians on its performance, for example.
Mayrand made his remarks to reporters after addressing the Procedure and House Affairs committee about the settlement of a dispute that last year caused him to write to the Speaker of the House of Commons to advise him that Manitoba Conservative MP James Bezan was no longer qualified to sit in Parliament. The dispute was over the cost of election signs.
Original Article
Source: ottawacitizen.com/
Author: GLEN MCGREGOR
No comments:
Post a Comment