Mr. Trudeau (Papineau, Que.) was responding to a comment Mr. Harper (Calgary Southwest, Alta.) made Tuesday as the opposition parties made a final push in the House of Commons for last-minute changes to the government’s controversial election legislation, Bill C-23, prior to a 5:30 p.m. deadline Thursday for debate over a host of opposition amendments and 45 government proposals to amend several clauses and put in new ones in response to a range of criticisms.
Though NDP Leader Tom Mulcair (Outremont, Que.) was pressing Mr. Harper to accept opposition demands for stronger investigative powers for the federal commissioner of elections, to combat the kind of fraudulent telephone calls a Conservative was allegedly involved with during the 2011 election and other Elections Act violations, Mr. Harper took shots at the NDP for its position in favour of retaining vouching provisions for voters who lack sufficient ID to prove both their identity and address.
The government has tabled amendments that will allow a form of vouching and oaths for electors who have no proof of address, but has vowed to maintain a clause in the bill that will require all voters to show proof of identity before they will be allowed to cast ballots. Proof of identification and address through vouching has been allowed in federal elections since the government brought in ID requirements in 2007.
Mr. Harper accused the NDP of holding an “extreme” view that voters should be able to cast ballots “even if they have no intention or ability to prove their identity” and called the position a “recipe for disaster.”
Mr. Trudeau said the Prime Minister’s position reflected earlier tactics the government has used in attempts to disarm political opponents.
“I have long held that one of the basic problems with Mr. Harper and his government is that they don’t trust Canadians,” Mr. Trudeau told The Hill Times in an exclusive interview as he entered the weekly Liberal caucus meeting of MPs.
“Everything is done in secrecy, everything is done with the worst possible expectations of how Canadians might behave, instead of having confidence in the big-hearted, responsible, compassionate, optimistic people that Canada is, and comments like that just go to reinforce that view of the Prime Minister,” Mr. Trudeau said.
NDP MP Craig Scott (Toronto-Danforth, Ont.), however, said he was unsure of what Mr. Harper meant, and that the Prime Minister could have just been referring to Canadians who don’t have their ID handy at the polls. But he said he believes there is a wider aspect to how Conservatives view the Canadian public.
“I would just look at the broader understanding by the Conservatives of the propensity of the average Canadian to be a fraudster, that’s the bigger story and this may be part of it," Mr. Scott said.
Despite the government’s decision last week to retain a form of vouching as proof of address, where a voter without the required documents would sign an oath, backed up by an oath from another elector in the same polling division, the requirement for either a government-issued photo ID, such as a driver’s licence, or other documents, such as health cards or employment cards and utility bills, could still prove difficult to present for thousands of voters, including transients, unemployed Canadians who are not receiving welfare or unemployment insurance, youth living at home, or indigenous persons who have no federal status Indian card.
In most cases where the elector does not have a photo ID, two other documents from and approved Elections Canada list would have to be presented.
The issue of vouching has been contentious since Minister of State for Democratic Reform Pierre Poilievre (Nepean-Carleton, Ont.) unveiled Bill C-23 last Feb. 4 and cited potential fraud as one of the reasons the government would prohibit vouching—which is allowed for provincial elections in four of the 10 provinces, as well as the Northwest Territories. Six provinces allow electors to cast ballots in provincial elections with no proof of identity.
When Mr. Poilievre defended Bill C-23 at a meeting of the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs committee, Liberal Senator George Baker, a longstanding member of the committee who has immersed himself in constitutional law since his appointment, argued the restriction on vouching would likely be ruled as a violation of the Charter of Rights should a voter be unable to cast ballots because of it.
Mr. Poilievre compared a requirement for ID at the ballot box to the requirement for a passport to leave Canada and travel abroad, after Liberal Senator Grant Mitchell argued it would take two liars to commit vouching fraud at a polling station.
“If you look at the logistics and the logic of voucher fraud, you have to have a voucher person who is a liar and a vouchee, the person being vouched for, who is a liar,” Sen. Mitchell said.
“In order for vouching fraud to be of some magnitude, you have to have a lot of Canadian liars,” he told Mr. Poilievre.
“Do you believe that people should have to continue to present ID when they cross the border?” Mr. Poilievre responded, a passport condition for Canadians entering other countries or re-entering Canada.
Sen. Mitchell rejected the comparison.
The government has refused demands that the legislation should give the federal elections commissioner the power to compel testimony from witnesses while investigating allegations of Elections Act violations, and is also committed to a measure that will transfer the commissioner and his investigative staff to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions.
The director of public prosecutions, Brian Saunders, told the Commons Procedure and House Affairs Committee this week the move could undermine public confidence in investigations as well as prosecutions under the Canada Elections because of a clause in Bill C-23 giving the director of public prosecutions the authority to hire and fire the elections commissioner.
Original Article
Source: hilltimes.com/
Author: Tim Naumetz
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