Yes, I'll be brief. My name is Jim Quail. I've been practising law in British Columbia for 26 years, and I'm the executive director of the B.C. Public Interest Advocacy Centre.
One of the things we do is represent low-income groups and individuals dealing with test case litigation having to do with infringements of their rights. If this legislation is enacted as it is, I can assure you this will be one of the files that we'll be taking on, and I can assure you that, in our view, it is highly vulnerable as it is now written.
I've also participated personally in the volunteer lawyer squads in the downtown eastside on election days, but I won't spend my time talking about that.
In any event, I would urge Parliament to simply eliminate these amendments from the Canada Elections Act. I would also add that this is not just a poverty issue--I think that point has been made--but it will create a situation where many electors who have come to the polls will be sent home to obtain the requisite identification. So not only people having problems in terms of owning identification, but also people with mobility problems in particular--seniors, people with disabilities--will in many instances be presented with a barrier that will make it impossible to vote, particularly if they decide to go to the polls late on election day.
I will get more into the legal issues, which are the main points I want to make.
Parliament needs to be aware that what it's proposing to do would mean to add further legal requirements for an elector, a Canadian citizen, to be entitled to receive a ballot. The Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees every citizen the right to vote in parliamentary elections, and I think it would not be a very large leap to find the government having to justify the legislation under section 1 of the charter.
I say that it adds further obstacles or requirements in terms of legal entitlement to receive a ballot in the following sense. A person would be required to own identification, either in the form of government-issued photo identification or as yet unknown scheduled identification that would be listed by the Chief Electoral Officer.
When you look at the realm of government-issued identification that has the bearer's photograph and address on it, we're essentially talking about drivers' licences and passports. Maybe prison guards and other occupations have badges that have their photo and their address, I don't know, but essentially, for all intents and purposes, those are the only two pieces of identification that an elector might have in the ordinary course. If you don't have a card, if you don't have a driver's licence, and if you don't happen to have a passport, you cannot vote under that section. You'd be required to produce the two other pieces of identification yet unknown.
The vouching process is not an adequate remedy because you would have to line up a registered voter who lives in your own poll, which might only be a couple of hundred voters, who has the required identification, who is available to attend at the polling place with you, and who is not vouching for any other voter. It is an absolute certainty that these amendments would result in a substantial number of people who are constitutionally entitled to vote being denied a ballot.
Essentially what it's doing is saying to people, you might be a citizen entitled to vote, but we're not giving you a ballot. This is a measure to prevent someone else, hypothetically, from receiving a ballot fraudulently, which is already an offence under the legislation, which is already subject to penal sanction. The question might be asked, what is it that you're seeking to fix?
We see this as a fairly straightforward matter, where, on the face of it, there's an infringement of a charter right and the government would have to show that it's reasonably justified under section 1. I suggest to you that reliance on anecdotal evidence is not going to convince the court that this passes muster. I'd urge the committee and Parliament to take a very close look at this and seriously contemplate eliminating these amendments altogether from the Canada Elections Act.
Those are my comments.