Criminalization of Right to Speech and Conscience
More Administrative Measures in Quebec to Criminalize Citizen Participation in Political Life
The Government of Quebec is taking the most ridiculous measures to criminalize dissent in the name of defending democracy. On April 10, Minister of Municipal Affairs, Andrée Laforest, tabled Bill 57, An Act to enact the Act to protect elected officers and to facilitate the unhindered exercise of their functions and to amend various legislative provisions concerning municipal affairs.
The law would give the political
police in Quebec the power to act against citizens and residents
who hold demonstrations at the offices of federal Members of
Parliament, Members of the National Assembly (MNAs), municipal
officials, or send them letters, launch petitions or write about
them, deeming such actions to be unlawful and even harmful to
Canadian and Quebec values and the interests of the state. It is
a most egregious extension of dictatorial powers against freedom
of speech and the right of the people to act to defend their
rights and the rights of all.
When it was tabled, the minister declared: "This law provides the possibility for a municipal elected official or a member of the National Assembly, who because he is an elected official is the subject of comments or gestures that unduly hinder the exercise of his functions or undermine his right to privacy, to ask the Superior Court to issue an injunction to put an end to this situation."
The first paragraph of the Act states:
"1. The purpose of this Act is to promote the role of elected officers, encourage candidates to run for elected office and improve the retention of elected officers already in office by facilitating the unhindered exercise of the functions of elected office within Quebec democratic institutions, in particular the exercise of those functions free from threats, harassment and intimidation."
A request for an injunction is to be "heard and decided on an urgent basis." The bill stipulates that with regard to MNAs, the Superior Court may order a person:
"(1) to not be in the MNA's constituency office;
"(2) to not be in the ministerial office of the Executive
Council;
"(3) to cease communicating with the MNA;
"(4) to cease disseminating in the public sphere comments
referred to in the first paragraph."
For municipal elected officials, the Superior Court may order a person:
"(1) to not attend the meetings of any council of a municipal
body of which the elected officer is a member;
"(2) to not be in the offices of any municipal body referred to
in subparagraph 1 without having been authorized to do so by the
council of that body;
"(3) to cease communicating with the elected officer;
"(4) to cease disseminating in the public sphere comments
referred to in the first paragraph."
Violations can lead to a fine ranging from $500 to $1,500 for anyone who hinders the exercise of a member or elected municipal officer's functions by "threatening, intimidating or harassing" them "in a manner that causes them to reasonably fear for their integrity or safety." As well, anyone who "causes disorder in a way that interferes with the conduct" of a municipal meeting "is liable to a fine."
At the municipal level, the minister responsible for Municipal Affairs will have the power to postpone or suspend a municipal election when the safety of people or property is threatened or when an unforeseeable event seriously hinders the smooth running of that election. It has the power to require the mandatory adoption by intermunicipal authorities of a code of ethics and professional conduct for their employees and to oblige any municipality or metropolitan community to adopt standards concerning the maintenance of order, respect and civility during council meetings.
Marie-Claude Nichols, independent MNA for Vaudreuil, issued a press release on April 12 in which she noted: "This expected bill is a hasty solution to a complex problem, since it was tabled without having first carried out a real accounting of the sources of the problem and without consulting the stakeholders concerned." She said, "In some municipalities, the problem translates into incivility on the part of citizens; in others, it is a toxic climate at the council table.... In some cities, the tension is between general management and elected officials." In short, the sources are varied and the proposed measures do not directly respond to them. "Having myself been mayor and prefect, I don't understand where Andrée Laforest wants to go with Bill 57," Nichols said.
In the experience of those involved in municipal affairs, most intimidation is carried out by other elected officials or by a clique of individuals against an elected official. For example, during virtual meetings, some elected officials simply close their screens so as not to hear a certain elected official when he or she speaks.
Bill 57 does nothing to address the fact that corruption continues to be a problem at the municipal level. In 2011, the Charbonneau Commission was convened to deal with corruption at all levels of government and the Permanent Anti-Corruption Unit was created. According to the Permanent Anti-Corruption Unit's head of prevention, since that time corruption in elected officials' circles has become more hidden and each scheme involves fewer players than before. In other words, power is being concentrated in fewer hands.
"It is no longer in plain sight. As with any type of organized crime, people adjust. [...] Today, it is more hidden, with a lower number of participants," he said. "We no longer observe, for example, vast networks like that of the former mayor of Laval, Gilles Vaillancourt, which involved dozens of companies and for which 37 people were arrested in 2013."
Embezzlement by the Laval mayor and his associates extended to land sales, snow removal and the professional services of landscape architects. Intimidation was among the methods used to achieve their purposes.
Instead of going after corrupt officials, measures have been taken by municipalities aimed at restricting citizens' rights. In January, the Municipality of Sainte-Pétronille on Île d'Orléans, in response to a petition demanding an investigation into the hiring of the new general manager who was allegedly fired by a former employer for serious offences, sent a formal notice to the 97 signatories, demanding that they cease their actions. The municipal council of the City of Rimouski during its April 8 meeting unanimously adopted a regulation allowing for an increase in fines imposed on citizens who disrupt the progress of public sessions. Workers have already shown up en masse at municipal sessions to challenge decisions and make their voices heard.
Under Bill 57, it is the voice of the citizens and residents which is clearly targeted. Attempts to protect elected officials by criminalizing dissent will protect neither elected officials nor citizens who want to make their voices heard on issues that concern them. The proposed law includes prohibitions of all kinds that are applied to individuals and organizations by the executive powers. The problem with that is precisely that the people are excluded and not even consulted on what they think is the cause of the problem and what solutions can be provided. Only by modernizing the processes on the basis of which decisions are taken, elections are held, and transactions at every level take place can such problems be resolved.
This proposed law is a desperate measure which will not only be applied to dissenters at the municipal level, where a lot of the corruption indeed takes place, but will be used to criminalize dissent at every level in Quebec.
Problems should be resolved through discussions in which every view is heard and given significance, not through the use of violence and threats. Time and again Quebeckers have had to defeat injunctions, fines and other actions which criminalize them and deprive them of their right to speak and act in defence of their rights and the rights of all. Today, in the name of eliminating intimidation, hatred, extremism and the like, the same is taking place all over again. Even if the law is passed, attempts to silence the people will not pass!
This article was published in
Volume 54
Number 3 - April 2024
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2024/Articles/M540035.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca