Procedure and House Affairs Committee on Oct. 18th, 2018

[Nathan Cullen, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

Normally we ask...not force, but people are required to register as a third party if they're involving themselves.

[LCdr Jean-François Morin]

Yes, exactly.

[Nathan Cullen, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

So then to deregister them from being a third party—

[David Graham, Liberal, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

I think we have enough information to show that this amendment isn't terribly helpful.

[The Chair, Liberal, Larry Bagnell]

Mr. Nater.

[John Nater, Conservative, Perth—Wellington, ON]

In an effort to be helpful, I propose that the amendment be amended by deleting new proposed paragraph 500(7)(a).

(Subamendment negatived [See Minutes of Proceedings])

(Amendment negatived [See Minutes of Proceedings])

(Clause 346 as amended agreed to on division)

[The Chair, Liberal, Larry Bagnell]

Amendment CPC-165 proposes new clause 346.1.

Stephanie.

[Stephanie Kusie]

This empowers judges to consider deregistration penalties for political parties engaged in collusion with third parties.

[The Chair, Liberal, Larry Bagnell]

Is there any discussion on this?

Do the officials have any comments?

[LCdr Jean-François Morin]

My only comment is that while the motion is two pages long, really the only substance here is—

[The Chair, Liberal, Larry Bagnell]

That's not very positive.

[LCdr Jean-François Morin]

I mean no offence. It's just that the Conservatives adopted a prudent approach in proposing a new section 501.1 because 501 was not yet open. All it does, basically, is repeat several subsections of section 501, which talks about the deregistration of parties in certain circumstances. This regime is already known. The effect of this motion is to add the three paragraphs that are mentioned in proposed subsection 501.1(1) to the category of offences that can lead to the deregistration of a party.

[The Chair, Liberal, Larry Bagnell]

Do you happen to know what those three things are that could cause a deregistration?

[LCdr Jean-François Morin]

Yes. They are offences of collusion with a third party.

[The Chair, Liberal, Larry Bagnell]

Okay, so this is adding the fact that collusion with a third party could also lead to deregistration, on top of everything else that could lead to the deregistration of a party.

Mr. Cullen.

[Nathan Cullen, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

What are the offences imagined up to this point for a registered party colluding with a third party? What penalties would a party face without this?

[LCdr Jean-François Morin]

It would face the various penalties that are found in section 500 of the Canada Elections Act, basically fines or imprisonment.

[Nathan Cullen, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

We've already contemplated that if a registered party colludes with a third party, imprisonment and fines are available. This would essentially add on the penalty of potentially deregistering the party as well.

[LCdr Jean-François Morin]

Exactly.

[Nathan Cullen, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

Okay.

[The Chair, Liberal, Larry Bagnell]

We'll have one last comment from Mr. Nater.

[John Nater, Conservative, Perth—Wellington, ON]

Thank you, Chair.

I like your prescience here in predicting this. It's a question to our witnesses. It was mentioned that there already is a deregistration concept within the act. What provisions would trigger that?

[LCdr Jean-François Morin]

Section 501 of the act includes some other contexts as well as the context of deregistration, which is specifically in subsection 501(2). In subsection 501(3), you can see the various offences that could lead to deregistration currently, for example, entering into prohibited agreement, soliciting or accepting contributions contrary to the act, collusion, providing or certifying false or misleading information, making false or misleading declarations, and so forth and so on.

[The Chair, Liberal, Larry Bagnell]

This amendment would add the fact that a party could also be deregistered if it colludes with a third party. There are other penalties for doing that already, as Mr. Cullen noted, jail and so on.

[John Nater, Conservative, Perth—Wellington, ON]

I request a recorded vote.