In the Parliament
Bill C-19, An Act to Amend the Canada Elections Act (COVID-19 Response)

"Free and Fair Elections" Are Meaningless Without an Informed Vote: MLPC National Leader

The Trudeau government has tabled new legislation adapting the electoral law in the event that an election is called during COVID-19 pandemic conditions. Bill C-19, An Act to Amend the Canada Elections Act (COVID-19 Response) was tabled in the House of Commons on December 10 by the President of the Queen's Privy Council, Dominic LeBlanc. It was scheduled for second reading and referral to the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs at the next House sitting. On December 11, the House was adjourned until Monday, January 25.

The duty of tabling the legislation fell to LeBlanc because, following its 2019 re-election, the Liberal government eliminated the long-standing ministerial portfolio specifically responsible for democratic reforms. This Ministry was tainted by the Liberal's high-handed rejection of the recommendations of its own Special Parliamentary Committee on Electoral Reform. To date, the Liberals simply dismiss the fact that they reneged on their promise to end the first-past-the-post method of counting ballots because the Prime Minister did not agree with the Committee's recommendation and wanted a self-serving preferential system instead.

Since coming to power in 2015, the Trudeau Liberals have shown a propensity for governing with contempt for Parliament and its Committees. This was again illustrated by Bill C-19 being tabled before the parliamentary committee entrusted with studying the issue of pandemic elections had tabled its report. The Committee's report, entitled "Protecting Public Health and Democracy During a Possible Pandemic Election," was tabled on December 11 by the Committee chair, Liberal MP Ruby Sahota, requesting a "comprehensive response," from the government. Both the Conservative Opposition and the Bloc Québécois voiced their opposition to this procedure, with the Bloc Québécois filing a dissenting opinion in which it "insist[s] on the fact that it is unacceptable that the government tabled [Bill C-19] even before the final committee report was tabled." The Committee heard from health experts and representatives of particularly vulnerable sections of the people, such as the Canadian Association for Long Term Care, the Council of Canadians with Disabilities, as well as health officials from several provinces.

Similarly, the Liberals rushed to call by-elections for the ridings of Toronto Centre and York Centre for October 26, without having established how the elections would be conducted safely, disregarding opposition to it doing so. Elections Canada put various safety measures in place, such as providing single-use pencils for marking ballots, and instituting physical-distancing at the polls. More enhanced measures, however, require legislative changes. Canada's Chief Electoral Officer Stéphane Perrault delivered a special report to Parliament on October 6 on how an election might be delivered during a pandemic. Elections Canada also submitted its list of proposed legislative changes in early October, including a model bill. But the Liberals chose to draft their own bill. Elections Canada has informed it is now studying the legislation to assess its implication on the conduct of an election. Should a snap election be called prior to the legislation receiving Royal Assent, Elections Canada would follow the same protocols it used during the by-elections.

Bill C-19, among other things, will make it easier for electors to register to cast ballots by mail as it will enable electronic submission of documents. Elections Canada predicts that up to five million electors would opt to vote by mail, as compared to the nearly 50,000 in the 2019 federal election.

Measures proposed in Bill C-19 around mail-in ballots include:

- installing ballot drop-off boxes at every polling place where people who are cutting it too close to mail-in deadlines can submit their ballot on time to have it counted;

- new offences -- a maximum penalty of five years in prison, a fine of $50,000 or both -- for tampering or interfering with these secure drop-off boxes;

- allowing Canadians to register for a mail-in ballot from home, online;

- permitting voters to vote in-person, even if they registered to vote by mail, so long as they either turn in their mail-in ballot unmarked, or sign an attestation that they have not already submitted it; and

- setting up a system to allow people to receive an online receipt of when their mail-in ballot has been delivered, as well as rules around the deadlines to send in special ballots.

In addition, the regular 12-hour one-day Monday polling will be spread out over Saturday, Sunday and Monday. This will allow for polling places to be properly cleaned and reduce the strain of long hours for election workers on the single day. It is hoped that long line-ups will be avoided.

Other measures include enabling Elections Canada to establish a single polling place at long-term care centres and similar residences, where staggered voting would be allowed over a 13-day period prior to regular polling. Elections Canada also requested that it be allowed to select polling locations based on their size and suitability for social-distancing rather than the statutory criteria based on proximity to electors.

Bill C-19 also enhances the Chief Electoral Officer's powers to take special measures to protect the health and safety of electors and election workers. This would include extending voting hours in a situation where the polling station was interrupted by a health emergency.

The measures introduced in the bill will take effect 90 days after they receive Royal Assent, or less should the Chief Electoral Officer determine that Elections Canada is ready to put them into effect sooner. They are temporary in nature and will be repealed once the Chief Electoral Officer, in consultation with the Chief Public Health Officer, determines they are no longer necessary.

In a backgrounder to Bill C-19, LeBlanc states: "By introducing these temporary amendments, Elections Canada will be able to offer more ways for Canadians to vote during a pandemic. I look forward to working with my parliamentary colleagues to deliver our shared goal of a free, fair and safe election."

This statement and other background information show that the changes are all about facilitating Canadians' ability to cast a vote; nothing is being done to deal with the substantive problems related to election campaigning. The absence of a level playing field when it comes to the right of Canadians to elect and be elected and the absence of mechanisms to guarantee the right to an informed ballot are a problem at the best of times. They will be far more pronounced in restrictive pandemic conditions.

Asked about these temporary changes to the Canada Elections Act, National Leader of the Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada (MLPC) Anna Di Carlo highlighted some of the problems which come up during an election campaign in pandemic conditions. For example, collecting 100 nominations from electors in a riding and having access to people in their homes and apartment buildings. During recent by-elections, Elections Canada modified the prescribed nomination form for collecting signatures. It created a form for one signature so that it would not be passed from elector to elector. Nonetheless, access to apartment buildings was clearly restricted while homeowners, logically, are not eager to answer their doors to strangers either. Several candidates were not able to register due to difficulties related to safely collecting nomination signatures. Elections Canada did not recommend that the nomination signatures requirement be changed; and the Liberal government does not appear to view this to be a problem.

Most important, Anna said, is the impression the government continues to push that Canadian elections are what is called "free and fair." Because the same regulations apply to everyone, there is said to be an "even playing field" -- which is to say that everyone is allegedly equal. "This is far from the case," she said.

"Most egregious is the violation of the right to an informed vote," she said. She decried the manipulation of what are called "election issues." "The 'issues' they emphasize do not take up the concerns of the people. They are set by the ruling class and the monopoly-controlled media as a means of disinforming the people. In other words, they are set to  impede the people from organizing themselves politically on the basis of a program they set for themselves. The cartel parties and media determine what will be promoted and make sure no discussion takes place on substantive issues," Anna said. "This will cause even more harm during an election held under pandemic conditions."

Discussion forums held by small parties and collectives of workers, women and youth, are already discouraged, Anna pointed out. Anna further elaborated this matter of who sets agendas and how discussion takes place during an election:

"How virtual forums will be regulated and accounted for is also an issue at this time. The intelligence agencies have been given a prominent role in monitoring what can and cannot be said on social media, according to what they determine constitutes a threat to national security. Along with self-serving definitions of what constitutes privacy and requires protection, and what concerns national security, the role given to the intelligence agencies and potential for them to disrupt exchange of ideas and political discourse is becoming a serious matter facing the polity. The airwaves are filled with accusations about the potential for Chinese or Russian disruption of the democratic institutions when in fact the spy agencies linked to the United States are past-masters when it comes to such things."

Anna pointed out that Bill C-19 establishes voting procedures as if this is the sum total of what an election is about. "They are not a problem in Canada in the sense that Elections Canada makes great efforts to ensure barriers to casting a ballot are overcome. The problems lie in the fact that Canadians are kept out of power by a cartel party system which eliminates any role for the citizens to actually participate in governance. Their sole role is to cast a ballot and they have no way to hold governments to account. The idea that an election provides the opportunity to endorse or change a government is farcical when Canadians do not control any aspect of the electoral system," Anna said.

Anna further explained: "Despite being able to get themselves nominated as independents, nobody will even find out about them. Spending limits may exist and be the same for all candidates, but most people cannot raise these kinds of funds. There is absolutely no 'free and fair' playing field when it comes to getting heard.

"This is why the MLPC encourages Canadians to become worker politicians and develop their own means of disseminating their views and develop their own independent politics. The old system whereby the people are supposed to hand over their voice to a political party to act on their behalf is rotten to the core. These political parties serve the program of international private interests. Just look at what Trudeau is doing vis-à-vis health care. In the name of paying all costs of COVID-19 vaccines, oodles of money is being borrowed from private sources to pay big pharma. Health care is being privatized and even provincial jurisdiction over health care is being eliminated 'by stealth.' In the name of efficiency and people's well-being, the army has been handed the task of distributing vaccines. The army and health officials are establishing criteria and arrangements as if all of it is very above-board and public-minded. But Canadians will suffer the consequences in many ways as a result of this takeover of civil society by armed forces which are being handed control of all aspects of life. Who sets that direction for the economy? Not Canadians in any shape or form."

Asked to explain further the issue of an informed vote, Anna said, "It is a fundamental issue. In this day and age, any measure taken at any level in the electoral process must be seen to uphold the right to an informed vote. Without this, any attempt to declare that those elected have the consent of the governed seriously lacks credibility."

She specifically mentioned that most independent candidates and small registered political parties are treated with utter disregard and disrespect. During the 2019 federal election, not one national media outlet contacted the National Headquarters of MLPC or even saw fit to interview the National Leader. "Inequality," Anna explained, "is built into the Canada Elections Act. It even stipulates that the ruling party should get the biggest share of publicly-controlled broadcasting air time. The media takes its cue from this system of conferring privileges.

"We recently participated in a meeting of registered political parties to discuss the allocation of broadcasting time. There is a provision that allows the Broadcasting Arbitrator to adjust the allocation of time if it is unfair to a party, or against the public interest. If the parties can come to a consensus on how time is divided, the Broadcasting Arbitrator complies. The minority of parties at the meeting, meaning those who benefit from the unequal division of time, would not support equality. In the 2019 federal election, the small parties received six to seven minutes of free air time, while the Liberal Party received 48 minutes. On top of this, the ads of the small parties are typically aired in time-slots when nobody is watching TV or listening to the radio. Six or seven one-minute ads do not amount to providing Canadians with information to cast an informed vote. It is farcical. During the meeting to discuss the allocation for the next election, the Liberal Party representative said such blatant inequality 'represents the will of the people.'"

"These problems merit attention," Anna said. "What we are speaking about here is a fundamental principle of equality which does not exist in Canada's system of governance." She continued:

"While Bill C-19 is justified as merely addressing temporary changes due to the pandemic, the Trudeau government's reversal of promises to change the method of voting to make the vote more representative cannot be ignored. Self-serving decisions made by those in positions of privilege and power over who is more legitimate and who is more deserving to govern have completely dispensed with any perception that the playing field is in any way 'even' or 'fair.' That will not change with these temporary pandemic changes to how, when and where votes can be cast.

"Every decision, up to when an election is called, poses a barrier to the ability of Canadians to participate in an election on an equal basis. Attempts to justify a political process that delegitimizes political opinion because it is outside the bounds of the official body of thought serves to limit what Canadians hear during an election in favour of those who form part of the establishment forces. It is anti-democratic to say the least."

Anna explained that prior to the 2019 federal election, Simon Fraser University issued one of the largest and most comprehensive studies conducted in the recent period about the state of Canada's democracy and what people think about it. The report found that a solid majority (61 per cent) "believes government puts establishment interests ahead of ordinary Canadians." It said 70 per cent believe that government is insensitive to what ordinary Canadians think.

"Such feelings among the people underscore their perception of how power and privilege work. They point to the crisis of legitimacy and credibility of the electoral process and the political process in general," Anna said.

"If an informed vote is not recognized as a basic tenet of the democratic process by those with the power to reform the electoral act, what is democratic about the act?" Anna asked. "The temporary pandemic measures do not even pretend to address the fact that independent candidates and those of small registered political parties are not treated equally.

"Instead the entire system is based on a false claim that some parties and party candidates are more legitimate than others -- a contrived social construct which is surely not acceptable in our day. Because of the narrow private interests it serves and which control it, the electoral process will continue to be perceived as one that does not confer the consent of the governed on whatever party wins an election, no matter what kind of a majority is claimed or how, when and where votes can be cast. Unless citizens are able to cast an informed vote, the conditions required for them to exercise control over their choices and elected representatives and governments do not exist," she said.

The Trudeau regime will go down in history as introducing an increasingly discriminatory approach towards who can be heard during an election and for concentrating power in fewer hands and in more foreign hands as well. It has used both the legislative process and its prerogative powers to heighten discrimination, as was seen by the Leaders' Debate Commission eliminating any political parties other than the major parties with representation in the House. These are all factors that facilitate the cronyism, corruption and cartel behaviour which predominate today. It confirms the self-serving character of the electoral and political process. Democratic-minded people recognize this as a serious problem that must be addressed if they are not to lose everything to the whims of those in positions of power and privilege."

Asked what proposals the MLPC advocates to modify the Canada Elections Act in a manner which favours the people right away, Anna explained:

"Currently, electors can go onto the Elections Canada website and find out who all the candidates are in their riding. But when it comes to finding out what the candidates stand for, they are left on their own. Of course, in the media they hear nothing except what the parties in the House are saying. We think that Elections Canada should be mandated to provide at least basic information about each candidate as provided by themselves and that this would help Canadians to cast an informed vote. The same should be done for every political party that fields candidates. This does nothing to deal with all the noise which fills the airwaves before and during an election designed to divide the people behind one or another faction of the ruling class, to their own detriment, but is a small thing which the people would appreciate."

In conclusion, Anna said it is very indicative of the state of affairs that the only problem of concern to Parliament seems to be to get people to vote so they can claim a mandate to rule in their name. "It is striking that neither during the by-elections held in October, nor in the discussion to date about pandemic elections, is the issue of how to engage in political discussions with the electors raised. The MLPC calls on Canadians to develop their own independent political stands and organize on that basis. They must not permit the elimination of the human factor/social consciousness by the self-serving private interests which have usurped power in this country. It creates a dangerous situation where the only option left is to be criminalized for fighting for the rights which belong to us by virtue of being human. It must not pass!"