Thank you.
It's always a pleasure to have you here at our committee.
I wanted to start by explaining—because you actually raised this question, what Mr. Hawn was asking—how a person can vote in multiple places if they've received a voter card. I know you were assuming people would get a voter card at one address. The answer is this.
In the last election I received three voter cards. One for Scott Reid, one for Jeffrey Reid, and one for Scott Jeffrey Reid. Obviously I voted only once, but had I wanted to, what I could have done is this. I could have gone to the returning office and voted once as Scott Reid. I could have shown them my ID that says I'm Scott Reid. I could have voted a second time at the advance poll as Jeffrey Reid--of course my ID shows that too--and then I could have voted at my regular poll. There would be different people at each poll, and that would cover me. And I could show them my ID each time.
I'm not saying this happens all the time, but you get the point. The safeguard you would normally have of having scrutineers watching would actually be absent in this situation. I just point that out because you had raised the question.
I wanted to actually revisit a question Mr. Proulx had brought up. He asked about the number of prosecutions there had been in recent years for false declarations. I'm not sure if you did answer that--he had so many questions--but if you didn't, I would appreciate your indicating that. In particular, I would like you to respond to something I read in the Toronto Star a few months ago. They had quite a discussion about electoral fraud, going back and forth, and of course you participated in a series of letters to the editor and articles.
This is an article in which it's claimed or alleged.... I'll just read what it says:
It is illegal under the Canada Elections Act to vote more than once in an election. Penalities range from a $5,000 fine to five years in prison, or both. But it's believed that no one in Canada has ever been convicted of voter fraud, and our elections are based on an honour system.
I'm not sure if that allegation is true, but I would like to find out now, if I could.