Thank you very much, Madam Chair, and thank you to the committee for the invitation to appear.

The British Columbia Civil Liberties Association is a non-profit, non-partisan group whose objectives are to promote, defend, sustain, and extend human rights and civil liberties in Canada. We have a long history of defending voting rights and the principle of voter equality. For example, we were an intervener in the Frank case at the Court of Appeal for Ontario, and have applied to intervene in the current challenge to certain provisions of the Fair Elections Act.

One critical case that we brought was Dixon versus the Attorney General of B.C., in 1989. In that decision, the court held that to give some voters less weight than others ran counter to the charter principles of equality and democratic governance. At the time, it was Chief Justice of the B.C. Supreme Court Beverley McLachlin who wrote in her opinion that “the right to vote and participate in the democratic election of one's government is one of the most fundamental of the Charter rights. For without the right to vote in free and fair elections all other rights would be in jeopardy.”

We believe this bill will jeopardize this right. It will place undue impediments on the right of Canadians living abroad to vote in federal elections, and we believe it will be found to be unconstitutional as a result. While the Frank decision sets the stage for maximizing citizens' ability to participate in our democracy and recognizes and extends the constitutional right to vote, this bill has the effect of limiting that right and limiting the participation of Canadians abroad in their own governance.

If Parliament is determined to legislate beyond a simple deletion of the inoperative provisions from Frank, we have no objection to the requirement that an individual prove they're a Canadian or that they establish their place of last residence. We do, however, share with the Chief Electoral Officer and other witnesses the concern that the requirement to register only once an election has been called is likely to disenfranchise some voters. For many voters like Dr. Woo, who testified last week, there simply may not be enough time.

We also believe the requirements to constantly re-prove one's last residence in Canada are unduly onerous. As far as we can tell from reviewing the evidence in these proceedings, no hard evidence has been provided as to why these steps are necessary. If an individual has proved their last residence in Canada once, why can that proof not stand until they return to Canada? Their last residence, as we've heard, cannot change once it has been established. We see no reason that any of this should only be done as well once the writ has been dropped.

As the committee has heard from no less than the Chief Electoral Officer, it is highly likely that people will not be able to complete this multi-step process in time—applying for a ballot, proving their last residency, waiting for the assessment, having the ballot mailed, and mailing it back. Resident Canadians don't need to do this. For example, 84% of tax filers provide their address to Elections Canada using their tax filings and keep themselves constantly updated in that way. We see no reason that non-resident Canadians, whose last address in Canada is fixed and immoveable, need to re-prove that location at each election.

We also object to the one voucher per voter rule, whether for resident or non-resident voters. You can easily foresee a situation in which a Canadian family, with several members who have long lived abroad but who don't have acceptable proof of their last residence in Canada, might have difficulty locating and reaching vouchers for each of the family members. Maybe you're still in contact with an old neighbour, who, lucky thing, still lives in the riding, but what if there's only one person left in that family living in the riding? What if there's not enough of them to vouch for the members of your family?

This is senseless. While we're pleased that the vouching has been expanded from the totally baseless requirement that the voucher live in the same polling division, we question the riding restriction, too. Why is this sworn and declared word of a voucher less worthy if they literally live down the street in Kitchener Centre, but you lived in Kitchener—Waterloo, and your kids went to the same school? Or what if they got transferred to Kitchener Centre in the recent redistribution? You used to live in the same riding and now you don't. We don't see why that should matter.

There can be no question for us that this act on its face places a barrier in the way of Canadians abroad exercising their constitutional right to vote, and the case law is clear. When legislation interferes with the capacity of citizens to play a meaningful role in the electoral process, it is inconsistent with section 3 of the charter. It's plain that the combination of all of these measures will make it so that Canadians will have more difficulty in voting from abroad.

Given that there's been a lack of any justification offered for the proposal, it's difficult for us to imagine how the infringement of charter-protected voting rights would be upheld by the courts as a justified infringement.

We urge the committee to take to heart the suggestions that have been made and make changes to this so that people could register earlier, before the election, so they are better able to cast their ballots—or else to reject this bill entirely.

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