Image: Flickr/Vasta

On April 24, 2014 the Commissioner of Canada Elections, Yves Côté released a long-awaited report of his investigation into voter fraud during the 41st General Election in May 2011. I reviewed his report, having served as Counsel for several electors, who in March 2012, brought applications to annul the results of the Election in 6 ridings across the country.

As my analysis describes, the Commissioner entirely failed to carry out a proper investigation. Instead he adopted a flawed and narrow approach to his task that caused him to ignore relevant evidence, neglect obvious routes of inquiry, and adopt ineffectual methods for his investigation. In consequence, the Commissioner made little or no progress in answering the questions that were central to his mandate, namely to determine the extent of and responsibility for voter suppression during the Election.

Unfortunately, three years later the most important questions about voter fraud during the last Election remain to be answered. The most important of these is:

In the days leading to the May 2011 Election, on how many occasions were lists of non-Conservative Party of Canada supporters downloaded from its data base, “CIMS,” by whom, and in respect of which electoral districts?

Those following Conservative efforts to amend the Canada Elections Act will know that the proposed reforms will do nothing to empower the Commissioner to compel the Conservative Party to answer that question, either with respect to the 2011 Election or the next, should voter fraud once again rear its ugly head. That means that political parties will remain unaccountable for the misuse of their databases, whether they condone that abuse or simply look the other way.

Image: Flickr/Vasta