Federal Government and Canadian Democracy

Canadian democracy: Here are three reasons why the federal government is playing a dangerous game that puts Canadas democracy at risk, according to The Star. In fact, Conservative MP Brad Butt retracted his statement last week that he apparently saw people using VICs for fraudulent purposes. Butts misleading statement leaves Canadians to wonder whether the government is proposing to change the rules to fix real problems or is instead making up stories to justify excluding already marginalized Canadians from exercising their democratic right to vote and Its no secret that Canadian democracy is in trouble. Fewer and fewer Canadians are exercising their democratic right to vote. Through its so-called Fair Elections Act , the federal government is proposing to rewrite Canadas electoral laws. However, far from of fixing the problems facing Canadian democracy, Bill C-23 includes changes that undermine the democratic legitimacy of our electoral process. First, the bill proposes to get rid of Voter Information Cards VICs . These cards are designed to allow Canadians already marginalized from the electoral process, such as students living away from home, seniors in long-term care facilities, and aboriginal people living on reserve to vote by showing their VIC alongside other officially recognized identification. The government claims that eliminating VICs will cut down on electoral fraud, but Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his team have been unable to provide evidence that citizens are deliberately trying to cast illegal ballots with VICs. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.