Evidence of meeting #25 for Procedure and House Affairs in the 41st Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was elections.
A video is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Former Commissioner of Canada Elections, As an Individual
No, we didn't find that. We didn't find that.
Conservative
Former Commissioner of Canada Elections, As an Individual
What we found was a lot of bungling and records that weren't made out properly, if you will, administrative problems.
Conservative
Tom Lukiwski Conservative Regina—Lumsden—Lake Centre, SK
Was there nothing in your investigation that would cause you to recommend that perhaps the vote should be overturned or perhaps a new election should take place?
Former Commissioner of Canada Elections, As an Individual
No. One thing that surprised me, though, was that the band offered a prize for voters to get the vote out. There was going to be a raffle with a television set, and I thought, well, there's something there. You can't bribe people to vote. We interviewed the band people. The band people said, “Well, you can't get anybody out to do anything around here without a raffle and a prize. It's the way we do things. If you want a meeting, you have a raffle and a prize to get them to your meeting.”
Conservative
Tom Lukiwski Conservative Regina—Lumsden—Lake Centre, SK
So let me get this straight. So the band people offered a big screen TV as a prize and encouraged people to vote for one candidate over the other.
Former Commissioner of Canada Elections, As an Individual
No, they didn't encourage people to vote.
Conservative
Tom Lukiwski Conservative Regina—Lumsden—Lake Centre, SK
Or said that they would probably get a better deal....
Conservative
Former Commissioner of Canada Elections, As an Individual
So how do you get the names in the buckets for the draw? Well, the band office is here and the voting is going there, and you sit in the window with the band list and you watch them as they go in. You circle their names. You cut them out. You stick them in a hat and you draw a name, and Mrs. so and so won the television set and refused to speak to us.
Conservative
Tom Lukiwski Conservative Regina—Lumsden—Lake Centre, SK
There's nothing irregular there in your opinion.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Joe Preston
Mr. Lukiwski, your time is up and I have no TVs for you.
Mr. Harris, you're up, seven minutes, please. It's great to have you here today, Mr. Harris.
NDP
Jack Harris NDP St. John's East, NL
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I'm happy to be here.
And thank you, Mr. Corbett, for your testimony and your story.
I wonder if I can ask you this. Mr. Lukiwski just spent his whole seven minutes asking about an investigation that was closed. I understand that if this were legislation after that was passed, you wouldn't be able to tell us about this investigation that was closed, would you?
Former Commissioner of Canada Elections, As an Individual
I don't know. I'm not familiar with the—
Former Commissioner of Canada Elections, As an Individual
I don't know the details of that legislation—
NDP
Jack Harris NDP St. John's East, NL
Let me tell you that what it says is that if an investigation is closed and no charges are laid, the elections commissioner is unable to provide any information or even comment about the investigation. So you wouldn't have been able to tell this story to Mr. Lukiwski after this election has passed. Do you think that's a helpful thing, that if an investigation takes place, if no charges were laid, you couldn't comment on it?
Former Commissioner of Canada Elections, As an Individual
When I became commissioner I was concerned for the fact that we would spend a great deal of money and effort investigating something, conclude that it wasn't a matter that could go to prosecution, and we couldn't say anything publicly. So I said, I'm not going to do that. Where there's a considerable public concern, I'm going to put out at least a press release as to what we found, and that didn't go over very well with the press people at Elections Canada, but I did it anyway.
NDP
Jack Harris NDP St. John's East, NL
But would it bother you that this act would prevent you from issuing such a press release?
Former Commissioner of Canada Elections, As an Individual
I think the public is entitled to know.
Jack Harris NDP St. John's East, NL
Not only would it prevent you from issuing a press release such as that, but what if you had an investigation and you had concluded there was very serious fraud but that you couldn't lay any charges because people were refusing to cooperate even under the encouragement of people involved in the election, and you couldn't comment on that? Would that be in the public interest for you to be unable to tell the public that there was fraud, but you couldn't identify the perpetrators because no one would cooperate and they were under instructions to do so?
Former Commissioner of Canada Elections, As an Individual
I've never had to deal with that issue and I don't know frankly how I would deal with that issue.