I ask my hon. colleague, should the amendments not proceed successfully today, should we not be able to amend the bill, is it not time for opposition parties to band together and perhaps seek a ruling from the Supreme Court before the bill passes that this violates section 3 of the charter?

Craig Scott: Mr. Speaker, let me say that I am pretty confident that if the bill passes intact or anywhere close to intact, there will be no small lineup of civically minded individuals and organizations that would challenge it.

The vouching provisions will certainly be challenged as the final safeguard for protecting the right to vote, but the entire intricate interconnection of elements in the bill—which all come down to depriving and excluding people from their right to vote, in the result but increasingly by intention because the government knows this will be the result—will also be challengeable.

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Two citizens, Tara Ferrell and Jonathan Allan, initiated the petition. They were also involved in organizing the big Robocall rallies in Toronto. Deeply concerned about the state of our democracy, they created a website [thefightfordemocracy.com] in order to collect signatures for their petition. Their cooperation was an overwhelming success as 1,500 people signed the petition. The Green Party also collected more than 8,000 signatures on its special Robocall website [robogate.ca].

The three MPs made statements in the House this morning:

• “I have over 600 signatures here from the Toronto area. The petitioners are seeking a full, independent investigation. Without making allegations as to who was behind it, we know something untoward occurred in 2011. We want answers,” said Green Leader Elizabeth May.
• “I applaud Tara and Jonathan who worked hard to get all of these signatures. This admirable grassroots initiative is raising awareness about an issue that speaks to the vulnerability of our democracy, to the combined threat of communications technology and unscrupulous people,” said Craig Scott.
• “What is key for these citizens is to be sure that we will know if the democratic right of some Canadians to vote has been suppressed because some people mislead them on the day of the election,” said Stéphane Dion.

“We need a public inquiry because Elections Canada does not have the resources to undertake the investigation that is required and the RCMP does not have a good track record uncovering electoral fraud,” added Elizabeth May.

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