XPost: can.politics, bc.politics, ont.politics   
   From: {~_~}@nyet.ca   
      
   Look at which government can't seem to get a database up, listing those   
   companies used for making robocalls.   
   At least not in time for the next election - even though it's in October   
   2015.   
      
   And, of course, by then there would be no enforcement by Mr Mayrand's   
   office, would there?  That role would come under the federal   
   government's jurisdiction.   
   See proposed Harper Con act.   
   ______________________________________________   
   Ottawa Citizen - April 15, 2014   
      
   Robocalls registry may not be in place for next federal election   
      
      
   OTTAWA – Reforms to the federal election law intended to crack down on   
   illegal robocalls may not be put in place by the time Canadians next go   
   to the polls.   
      
   The government’s contentious Fair Elections Act contains an obscure   
   clause that places a six-month delay on the “robocall registry” of   
   automated calling companies.   
      
   Depending on when the legislation receives royal assent, and the timing   
   of the next election, the vote could be held with no more protection   
   than exists now from the kind of misleading robocalls that marred the   
   2011 vote.   
      
   Most of the Fair Elections Act becomes law the moment the Governor   
   General grants assent, after first winning approval from the House of   
   Commons and Senate.   
   But the coming-into-force clauses contain a specific phase-in period for   
   sections dealing with automated calling companies.   
      
   These sections in the proposed law require calling companies to register   
   with the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission   
   (CRTC) and retain for one year a copy of the recording used in automated   
   robocalls and scripts used for live calls.   
      
   The new provisions will take effect only on the day Parliament is   
   dissolved and an election begins — as long as this occurs six months   
   after the bill becomes law.   
      
   If an election is called within six months of assent, the robocalls   
   rules won’t take effect until the date the next Parliament is dissolved   
   — the election currently scheduled for 2019.  <<==   
   ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^   
      
   It was concern about illegal robocalls during the 2011 campaign that put   
   pressure on the government to overhaul the elections rules.  Chief   
   Electoral Officer Marc Mayrand warned in 2012 that the Elections Act   
   needed modernizing to account for new voter-contact technologies such as   
   mass automated calling.   
      
   The government delayed introducing legislation until earlier this year,   
   when it tabled the Fair Elections Act, a bill that has been panned by   
   many elections experts.   
   ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^   
      
   But the Conservative government hopes to have it made law before   
   Parliament recesses for the summer at the end of June, which would see   
   it fully implemented with plenty of time before the next vote.   
      
   That plan could be derailed by resistance in the Senate, where it is   
   subject to a “pre-study” concurrent with deliberations by a House of   
   Commons committee.  This week, a Senate committee raised red flags about   
   some of the bill’s components and wants amendments before agreeing to   
   pass it.   
      
   The next election is scheduled for October 2015, under the   
   fixed-election dates law the Conservatives introduced in 2006.  Prime   
   Minister Stephen Harper has disregarded his own election date   
   legislation in the past when it was politically expedient, by claiming a   
   dysfunctional Parliament left him no choice but to send voters back to   
   the polls in 2008, only two years after the election that had preceded it.   
      
   There is speculation that Harper may again ignore his own law and   
   trigger an election following the budget next March.  If he did, the   
   Fair Elections Act would have to have become law by around the end of   
   September 2014 to be in place for the next election.  Members of   
   Parliament and Senators return from their summer holidays the third week   
   of September.   
      
   Democratic Reform Minister Pierre Poilievre’s office says that the   
   six-month delay is required to allow the CRTC to build its Voter Contact   
   Registry. The built-in six-month delay is a “standard drafting practice   
   to provide for all eventualities,” his spokesperson, Gabrielle   
   Renaud-Mattey, wrote in an email.   
      
   “This is because it has been estimated that — while the Canadian   
   Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) can fully   
   develop a voter contact registry by the time of the next general   
   election in 2015 – it would need a minimum of six months to implement a   
   bare structure allowing for the provisions to be implemented.   
      
   “Since a six month minimum has been identified as being a requirement   
   for the CRTC to implement the provisions, the coming into force   
   provision has to provide for the possibility that the bill could receive   
   royal assent after April 2015.”   
      
   So far, only one person has been charged for making illegal robocalls.   
   Guelph Conservative campaign worker Michael Sona faces one count of   
   interfering or trying to interfere with an election, in relation to the   
   infamous “Pierre Poutine” calls that directed voters to the wrong   
   polling station in 2011.   He is scheduled for trial in June.   
      
   Elections Canada is continuing to investigate complaints about phone   
   calls received by voters in more than 200 other ridings across the country.   
   _________________________   
      
   http://www.canada.com/story_print.html?id=9737864&sponsor=   
      
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