Parliament should rewrite voting law to regulate foreign money, says elections commissioner

Comedian John Oliver made it a punchline. Now, Yves Côté says an overly broad clause barring foreign inducements should be replaced with one restricting the amount of foreign money allowed in the electoral process.

Elections commissioner Yves Côté told the Procedure and House Affairs Committee last week his office received 'a number of complaints' about political endorsements by non-Canadians in the run-up to the 2015 election that relied on what he termed as overly literal readings of the legislation on foreign inducements.Screenshot courtesy of ParlVu/House of Commons

News

BY MARCO VIGLIOTTI

June 14, 2017

Ottawa should rewrite voting legislation to scrap a limp, unenforceable provision that appears to prohibit non-Canadians from expressing views about how Canadians should vote, and instead put in place a new rule to limit undue influence of foreign funding, says Canada’s elections commissioner. Y...

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