XPost: can.politics, bc.politics, ab.politics   
   XPost: sk.politics, man.politics, mtl.general   
   From: puela@nyet.ca   
      
   You won't be allowed to vote in the upcoming federal election.  Harper   
   government initiative.   
      
   "Mass murderers have the right to vote, the judge noted, but not long-term   
   expats".   
   ________________________________________________   
   TORONTO — The Canadian Press - Monday, Jan. 05 2015   
      
   Feds fight to deny long-term expats right to vote as case heads to appeal   
      
      
   The right of long-term expats to vote in federal elections goes before   
   Ontario’s top court Tuesday, as Ottawa fights a ruling that struck down part   
   of   
   Canadian voting laws.   
      
   Barring Canadians from voting — in this case those who have lived abroad for   
   more than five years — is a justified restriction in a free and democratic   
   society, the government argues.   
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   “The residence limit to voting ensures the connection of the citizen to the   
   place where he or she casts their vote,” the government states in its factum.   
      
   “That is the social contract at the heart of our system of constitutional   
   democracy.”   
      
   In May last year, Ontario Superior Court Justice Michael Penny ruled parts of   
   the Canada Elections Act — enacted in 1993 — were unconstitutional.   
      
   In doing so, he extended the vote to as many as one million Canadians living   
   abroad — even though a sliver of that number would likely vote in, for   
   example,   
   this year’s federal election.   
      
   For one thing, Penny ruled, expats may well be subject to Canadian tax and   
   other laws.   In addition, mass murderers have the right to vote, the judge   
   noted, but not long-term expats, who “care deeply” about Canada.   
      
   Pierre Poilievre, the minister responsible for democratic reform, tabled the   
   Citizen Voting Act last month in an effort to tighten the voting rules for   
   Canadian expatriates.   
      
   It would require voters living abroad to provide proof of their identity,   
   citizenship and past residence in Canada, and allow them to vote only in the   
   constituencies in which they last lived.   
      
   Ottawa, which sought unsuccessfully to stay the ruling ahead of last June’s   
   byelections, insists non-resident Canadians need to have a “direct and   
   meaningful” connection to Canada and their ridings in order to vote.   
      
   As such, it began enforcing the five-year rule under which long-term expats   
   could only regain the right to vote by resuming residency in Canada — not by   
   just visiting.   
      
   Two Canadians living in the United States launched the constitutional challenge   
   after being denied a ballot in the 2011 federal election: Montreal-born Jamie   
   Duong, 31, of Ithaca, N.Y., and Toronto-born Gillian Frank, 36, of Princeton,   
   N.J., argued they had only left Canada for educational and employment   
   opportunities.   
      
   Both said they — in common with many other expats — still have a strong   
   attachment to Canada and a stake in its future.   
      
   “Five years is an arbitrary limit which has no bearing on a citizen’s   
   connection to Canada,” they argue in their factum.   
      
   “If citizenship is not enough, the very act of voting evidences these   
   individuals’ connection to Canada.”   
      
   The appeal to a “fictitious social contract” simply isn’t enough to deny   
   them   
   their fundamental democratic rights, the factum states.   
      
   They also argue the Supreme Court of Canada has been “forceful” in   
   refusing to   
   strip voting rights from particular groups — such as prisoners — absent any   
   specific concern.   
      
   “The respondents, who are proud Canadians with strong rights to our country,   
   are entitled to the same unyielding protection.”   
      
   Still, the government maintains, provinces, territories and other countries   
   with similar electoral systems as well as their courts have found residency   
   limits are “reasonable and justified.”   
      
   New Zealanders, for example, lose the right to vote after three years of   
   uninterrupted absence.   
      
   In all, expats pay annually an estimated $6 billion in income taxes to the   
   Canadian treasury, despite using fewer resources than their in-country   
   counterparts.  Some long-term expats — among them members of the Armed Forces   
   and diplomats — have always retained the right to vote by way of a   
   “special”   
   ballot.   
      
   The Appeal Court hearing is expected to take two days.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)