The Accidental Weblog

Dear Mr. Dewar:

First, my sincerest congratulations on your being reelected to the House. I expect you will represent us ably, as always.

And now to business:

I am writing as one of your constituents to request that among the issues the opposition shall pursue in the coming legislative session, that an investigation into alleged voter suppression tactics in the 2011 federal election be put on the agenda of the house.

Furthermore, I think it only appropriate that the legislature consider increasing the penalties for conviction in such activities.

As so many have eloquently noted in the past several days, the formal vote is a vital institution, and the deprivation of any citizen of their franchise is a serious matter. News reports have made it very clear that efforts have been made to do exactly this.

I expect it goes without saying: this is a serious issue. I submit, therefore, that the following at the least should be done:

1) A full investigation be pursued, and if existing civil authorities do not have the means to pursue it thoroughly, either they be given those means, or an office of Elections Canada be specifically tasked with doing so, and funded accordingly.

2) The scale, scope, and distribution of this activity be profiled as well as possible. The Canadian people should know in which ridings such activity took place, and in what numbers.

3) If the scope is significant, the course of the investigation should collect sufficient information to make it possible to determine if any partisan intent on the part of those guilty is detectable from the known facts. To wit: we need to know whether those who received calls directing them away from their legally specified polling place had known voting patterns—and especially, did they previously respond to calls from parties attempting to determine their voting intentions—and is there a larger pattern in the calls revealed by this data?

As much as I realize this third recommendation will no doubt be contentious, I strongly recommend it, nevertheless. If an organized and widespread effort is afoot, the citizenry and the legislature both have a very real need to know on whose behalf it was intended to work. Indeed, I should think even those whose electoral interests it would have served should, on their honour, want to know as much, and I expect them, especially, to repudiate such tactics appropriately. The intent, here, among others, is to make it very clear to those attempting such activities that intended thrust of their activity may well be detected and aired publicly, and even if they are successful in their efforts, such deflection of the vote will become a matter of public record, potentially to the detriment of the reputation of the intended beneficiary.

4) Following the intent above, the results of such an investigation be aired publicly, and widely.

5) An effective and thorough information campaign be carried out informing voters widely that calls of this nature are not to be believed, and are to be reported, appropriately, to authorities. This recommendation is aimed, obviously, at neutering such attempts in the future. The criminals who run these efforts should be made to understand it will not only be futile, but, indeed, extremely dangerous.

6) Finally, it should be made very, very certain that the penalty for such crimes is appropriately severe. I should think an organized effort to swing the election by such underhanded tactics in a democracy such as ours should result in significant jail time.

Ours is a great nation, with a rich tradition of democracy. Tactics like these, beyond being a corruption of a vital institution, and a despicable denial of citizens’ basic liberties, are a black mark on our reputation. They must not be allowed to flourish. I believe we must, as a matter of preserving that institution, and those liberties, be vigilant and even aggressive in pursuing this matter. Nothing less than a basic and vital human right is at stake.

Yours sincerely, etc.

(/Sent to my MP this morning.)