This edition of the ebulletin has a strong focus on the upcoming federal election. I encourage you to go to the polls to make your voice heard and exercise your fundamental democratic right to vote.
will be holding its Annual General Meeting on May 25th in Toronto- we will be posting details about this on our website shortly, and current members will be receiving details in the mail in the coming days. The AGM is open to all members in good standing. If you are not yet a member of our organization, I invite you to join us today!
For those of you in Toronto, we are giving away FREE tickets to two movies at the Hot Docs film festival. To find out more and enter the giveaway, visit this page: http://ccla.org/2011/04/28/hot-docs-film-festival-ticket-give-away/ – the deadline is today at 3pm, so don’t delay!
As always, thank you for your support
Nathalie Des Rosiers
General Counsel
- Voting Is The Right Of All Citizens… Or Is It?
- Federal Elections: A Civil Liberties Perspective
- In Memoriam: Allan Blakeney
- CCLA Denounces The Use of Tasers Against Children By The RCMP
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The right to vote is considered to be among the most basic and fundamental rights in a democratic society. This right is set out explicitly in section 3 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms which grants “[E]very citizen of Canada” the right to vote in an election. Indeed, the Supreme Court of Canada has recognized the right to vote as lying at the heart of Canadian democracy. Despite the fundamental nature of this right, the Canada Elections Act places restrictions on the rights of Canadian citizens who live outside of the country to vote in federal elections. Over the past few weeks, the CCLA has received a large number of complaints about this issue and, in particular, about the inconsistent and confusing information that Canadians who live outside of the country are receiving from Elections Canada.
The Canada Elections Act provides that a person who has “been absent from Canada for less than five consecutive years and who intends to return to Canada as a resident” may vote in accordance with special voting rules. The CCLA has learned that this restriction on voter eligibility has been implemented inconsistently, and some have suggested that Elections Canada has recently changed its interpretation of the law. The issue is whether Canadian citizens who work or study outside of Canada with intermittent visits to Canada and with the intent to return should be deprived of the right to vote. Other countries have more generous voting rules for people living, working or studying outside of their country.
The CCLA has written to Canada’s Chief Electoral Officer expressing significant concerns about the impact that this confusion may have on individuals’ fundamental democratic right to vote and is urging him to clarify Elections Canada’s interpretation of the eligibility requirement, to advise whether there has been a change in interpretation, and to take steps to ensure that the law is applied fairly and consistently going forward. The right to vote should be interpreted generously, and not denied for arbitrary reasons.
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| Federal Election: A Civil Liberties Perspective | |
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Elections are one of the hallmarks of democracy, and they represent one of the few instances when citizens have the opportunity to make their voices heard and to have a real say in the major decisions that will affect our lives and the future of our country. Voting is a fundamental right that we cannot take for granted. The upcoming federal election is your chance to participate in and improve our democracy.
Which issues matter most to you? How you will you ensure those issues get on the national agenda? Exercising your right to vote is an important first step in becoming an active participant in Canadian democracy and in ensuring that our rights and freedoms are defended and promoted.
Through this special section, CCLA is bringing you a civil liberties perspective on important issues. Click here to visit the webpage: 2011 Federal Elections |
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| In Memoriam : Allan Blakeney | ||
Allan Blakeney was Premier of Saskatchewan, and was Minister of Health for Saskatchewan but he also served as President of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association from 1998 to 2003 and continued to be an active member of the Board until his death. CCLA will miss him.
Alan Borovoy ended his tribute to him in the following way: “It would be a mistake to overlook one of Allan Blakeney’s central attributes: his basic human decency. Put very simply, he was a great guy. Warm, accessible, and invariably helpful. We are deeply saddened to lose him.”
Allan Blakeney was part of many CCLA battles and he was profoundly committed to democratic values and fundamental freedoms. “He was a person of great wisdom who had a profound understanding of democracy, he provided me with great advice and I will miss him dearly”, said Nathalie Des Rosiers who visited with Mr. Blakeney in Saskatoon last year. We invite our members to send their cherished memories of Allan Blakeney to us: we will post them on our website. |
| CCLA Denounces RCMP’s Use of Taser against Children | |
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On April 7, 2011, an 11-year-old boy in Prince George, B.C. was reportedly stunned by RCMP officers with Taser. This incident, in the CCLA’s view, raises serious concerns about the RCMP’s policy on the use of Conducted Energy Weapons (“CEW”) and reinforces the CCLA’s repeated calls for uniform national standards for the use of CEWs by law enforcement.
The CCLA has consistently advocated for restricting the use of CEWs by law enforcement, particularly when such weapons are used against medically vulnerable individuals such as children. While the CCLA appreciates the need for law enforcement to use force in certain situations to diffuse an imminent risk of death or serious bodily harm to police or members of the public, it believes that alternatives to CEWs that require less force are often sufficient to achieve this objective in a vast majority of cases.
On April 27, the CCLA wrote to the Commissioner of the RCMP urging the RCMP to update its CEW policy such that the use of CEWs on medically high risk groups, including children, will be avoided except in the rare cases where other de-escalation techniques requiring less force would not be effective. The CCLA also asked the RCMP to include, as a part of its CEW training, information on the heightened medical risks associated with the use of CEWs on children and other vulnerable populations.
Furthermore, the CCLA argued that the limited amount of information that has been released to-date by the RCMP to the public about the April 7 incident runs counter to the public interest and undermines public confidence in the investigations that the RCMP has since launched. The CCLA urged the RCMP to make the officers’ CEW reports in this case publicly available as soon as possible.
The CCLA will continue to monitor the ongoing investigations into this Taser incident and to advocate for robust, uniform guidelines for the use of CEWs by law enforcement across Canada so as to ensure state force is only used where necessary and appropriate. |
