Evidence of meeting #56 for Procedure and House Affairs in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was interference.
A video is available from Parliament.
10:35 a.m.
Conservative
Michael Cooper Conservative St. Albert—Edmonton, AB
Thank you.
Would it violate the Canada Elections Act for a business to hire an individual under the pretense that the individual works for that business, and then pay that individual to work on a political campaign?
10:35 a.m.
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
That would amount to an illegal, non-monetary contribution by the business.
10:35 a.m.
Conservative
Michael Cooper Conservative St. Albert—Edmonton, AB
Thank you.
Would it violate the Canada Elections Act for consular officials or staff at a foreign consulate or embassy to assist a candidate or campaign during work hours?
10:35 a.m.
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
There are rules on volunteer labour. I'd have to verify the specifics on that.
10:40 a.m.
Conservative
Michael Cooper Conservative St. Albert—Edmonton, AB
Thank you for that.
With respect to the penalties that would apply, could you elaborate briefly on those, with respect to those circumstances you identified as contravening the act?
10:40 a.m.
Commissioner of Canada Elections, Office of the Commissioner of Canada Elections
As I just explained, the document that my office prepared contains a table that describes all that. It also talks about violations and breaches, and that is important. The document includes all that information, including jail time.
10:40 a.m.
Conservative
March 2nd, 2023 / 10:40 a.m.
Conservative
Luc Berthold Conservative Mégantic—L'Érable, QC
Thank you.
Mr. Perrault, will you be able to send the committee your response regarding volunteer work?
10:40 a.m.
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
There are exceptions and I don't want to get too far ahead of myself on that at this point, but I will send my response to the committee, absolutely.
10:40 a.m.
Conservative
Luc Berthold Conservative Mégantic—L'Érable, QC
Thank you. I wanted to make sure we were going to get the information.
Mr. Perrault, since the 2019 election, have you had any meetings with the Prime Minister or anyone in his office about foreign influence by the Chinese regime?
10:40 a.m.
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
No, I have never had any, before or since.
10:40 a.m.
Conservative
Luc Berthold Conservative Mégantic—L'Érable, QC
Has anyone from the government tried to contact you to inform you of the problem, to ask for advice or to try to find solutions?
This is a growing problem. Government members have said repeatedly that this is a major issue they are very concerned about, but you say that no one has tried to contact you.
10:40 a.m.
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
We work with our security partners, particularly on cybersecurity issues in our infrastructure. In preparation for an election, we also work with all of our partners, including the RCMP and CSIS, to develop hypothetical scenarios or what we call tabletop exercises.
10:40 a.m.
Conservative
Luc Berthold Conservative Mégantic—L'Érable, QC
The Prime Minister never felt it was important to contact your office to share his concerns about this issue.
Do you have all the required clearance levels to receive information from CSIS?
10:40 a.m.
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
Yes, I have the security clearance to see top secret documents.
10:40 a.m.
Conservative
Luc Berthold Conservative Mégantic—L'Érable, QC
So CSIS is sharing information with you that you cannot currently share with members of Parliament.
10:40 a.m.
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
I have not received any factual information from CSIS about foreign interference. I received briefings on the level of risk prior to the election, but I have not received briefings specifically on actions that took place during the election.
10:40 a.m.
Conservative
Luc Berthold Conservative Mégantic—L'Érable, QC
So you have had no discussions with the Prime Minister's Office or with the Prime Minister about what steps need to be taken or what legislative changes need to be made in order to prevent a recurrence of foreign interference, particularly from the Chinese regime, in our elections.
10:40 a.m.
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
I provide Parliament with my recommendations for improving the Canada Elections Act. I submitted a number of recommendations last June. At that time, we were not dealing with the current issues, but I did submit recommendations that are relevant to the current context.
10:40 a.m.
Conservative
10:40 a.m.
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
The committee needs to consider my recommendations. I look forward to discussing those recommendations before this committee.
10:40 a.m.
Conservative
Luc Berthold Conservative Mégantic—L'Érable, QC
Ms. Simard, in your opening remarks, you said that there were 16 complaints involving 13 situations. A little later, you said that all of those files had been closed. Is that correct?
10:40 a.m.
Commissioner of Canada Elections, Office of the Commissioner of Canada Elections
Yes. I also said so during my first appearance.
10:40 a.m.
Conservative
Luc Berthold Conservative Mégantic—L'Érable, QC
Briefing notes released yesterday, I believe, indicate that Mr. Perrault sent three complaints to your office.
Did those three complaints, which were deemed of concern by the Chief Electoral Officer, result in any charges or inquiries, or anything like that?
10:40 a.m.
Commissioner of Canada Elections, Office of the Commissioner of Canada Elections
I would like to have more details. We handle thousands of complaints a year. For example, there were 8,000 of them in 2019. So I don't know what complaints you are talking about.