politics
Elections Canada Chief Says Proposed Bill Does Not Fully Address Misinformation Undermining Voter Trust
Chief Electoral Officer Stéphane Perrault told a House of Commons committee that Bill C-25 does not explicitly cover the publication of inaccurate information intended to undermine trust in the electoral process or its results. The bill, tabled in late March, would make it an offence to publish false information about the electoral process with the goal of tampering with the vote.
May 7, 4:53 PM·2m read1 source
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The head of Elections Canada has told MPs that the federal government's proposed electoral reform legislation does not go far enough to address the spread of misinformation aimed at undermining public confidence in elections. He said he is generally supportive of Bill C-25 but believes it should be amended to cover situations where inaccurate information about the electoral process is published specifically to erode trust in the election or its outcome.
"What is not addressed by this bill is a situation where inaccurate information about the electoral process is published with the goal of undermining trust in the election or its results," Perrault said Thursday. Bill C-25 was tabled in Parliament in late March.
It includes measures to counter foreign and domestic political interference, including foreign donations, bribery, disinformation and AI-generated deepfakes of candidates. The legislation would make it an explicit offence to publish false information about the electoral process with the goal of tampering with the vote.
Perrault noted that provisions in Canada's existing election laws already prohibit the spread of such disinformation and that they have been used in the past. He said the new bill should be changed to explicitly include the spread of misinformation aimed at undermining faith in the electoral process itself.
"If someone is deliberately spreading falsehood to undermine trust in the result of an election, or trust in the election itself ... there needs to be a mechanism in the act to address this," he said.
