Democracy Gone Astray

Democracy, being a human construct, needs to be thought of as directionality rather than an object. As such, to understand it requires not so much a description of existing structures and/or other related phenomena but a declaration of intentionality.
This blog aims at creating labeled lists of published infringements of such intentionality, of points in time where democracy strays from its intended directionality. In addition to outright infringements, this blog also collects important contemporary information and/or discussions that impact our socio-political landscape.

All the posts here were published in the electronic media – main-stream as well as fringe, and maintain links to the original texts.

[NOTE: Due to changes I haven't caught on time in the blogging software, all of the 'Original Article' links were nullified between September 11, 2012 and December 11, 2012. My apologies.]

Friday, April 19, 2013

Harper government delays bill to address robo-calls issues

The Harper government is temporarily delaying the introduction of its electoral reform legislation following a discussion in Conservative caucus Wednesday morning.

In the closed door meeting, Tory MPs raised concerns about how some measures in the bill were designed and suggested changes.

Asked for comment Wednesday afternoon, Tim Uppal, the minister of state for democratic reform said the Tories found some last-minute problems with the new bill.

"In our desire to rapidly incorporate recent recommendations made by the chief electoral officer, we discovered a last-minute issue in the proposed Elections Reform Act. Therefore, we are postponing the introduction of legislation. We will take the time necessary to get the legislation right,” the minister of state said.

It’s been expected the bill would tackle gaps in the law exposed by the robo-calls scandal in Guelph, Ont., where non-Conservative voters were telephoned by a fraudster who sent them to the wrong polling station.

The legislation was supposed to be tabled Thursday in the Commons.

Mr. Uppal had said earlier this week that the legislation would address concerns raised by Chief Electoral Officer Marc Mayrand.

“Our government will introduce comprehensive elections reform proposals to increase accountability, accessibility and integrity to Canada’s elections system,” Mr. Uppal told the Commons on Tuesday.

Mr. Mayrand has said he believes stricter rules to combat fraudulent or harassing calls to voters should be in place soon to prevent another spate of such incidents during the next election.

Original Article
Source: theglobeandmail.com
Author: Steven Chase 

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