Corruption & Democracy Review Oct 31

The first in a series intended to document the growing corruption in political institutions across Canada, as well as backsliding democracy.

Welcome to Corruption review. As it is my primary concern in Canada, this will be an ongoing series regarding the finances, and the openness of governments across the country. This will be our flagship series going forward, and will be updated as often as is necessary.

We are still waiting for Conflict of Interest disclosures from the federal government. This disclosure report is due at the latest on December 28th, 2025. They have a maximum of 8 months from polling day to file these reports online.

On October 2nd, the government released a retrospective on the 45th general election. This retrospective said near the beginning “Coming out of the 45th General Election, I believe that, in this regard, Canada continues to serve as a model to the world – a nation where democracy is not just a system, but a shared commitment. Where citizens take the time to make informed choices, to scrutinize, to engage, and ultimately, to shape the future of this country.”

This is both true and not true. Canada has a more stable democracy than many other countries in western democracies right now, particularly in comparison to the United States or the United Kingdom, however the state of democracy is in danger right now considering the rise of the far right, expansive rise of misinformation, and foreign interference.

Although foreign interference didn’t seem to have a major affect on this election, there is still massive amounts of work to do.

First and foremost Canada still must reckon with its unbalanced electoral system that doesn’t provide appropriate representation to its citizens. The Liberals, in the previous election received 43 per cent of the votes, while receiving 49 per cent of seats. The conservatives received 42 per cent of the vote and somehow only received 41 per cent of seats. The NDP received 6 per cent of votes, while receiving 2 per cent of seats. Considering the extremely vast voting intentions throughout Canada, and the way the electorate has consistently voted, the electoral system continues to cause great harm to our country. The failure to represent the country is leading to a democratic deficit, which in turn opens the door to fascism long term. Dónal Gill (PhD) and I published an article on this in Canadian Dimension.

In that article we wrote: “Political scientists have long understood that mutual trust amongst the population and trust in governing institutions is vital for the maintenance of a healthy democratic culture. These attributes are in decline in Canada, not as sharply as in other democracies around the world, but complacency in an era of democratic recession is not an option.” I recommend reading the full article as it serves as a sharp criticism about our failures as a democracy, and the receding ability of our democracy to function.

Not only did the Retrospective on the 45th general election fail to address how the electoral system doesn’t address the country’s desires accurately, it also failed to address the scandal of a voter in Terrebonne being denied their right to vote by the electoral system and judicial system. The voter, a young woman, mailed in her vote in a riding where the Liberals won by a single vote. Her vote would have made it a 50/50 split. The rejection of the appeal by the Bloc Québecois is a failing of the democratic system that Canada likes to present “serves as a model to the world.”

Meanwhile, in the Montreal election, certain areas have more votes than others, and one area has one less vote than the other boroughs. Ville Marie, because its mayor is the mayor of the city, has one less vote than the other areas, effectively causing those who live in the area to have a vote which counts for less. Meanwhile in the southwest, they vote five times in each municipal election, effectively having a vote that counts for 1.666 times more than the rest of the city.

Across Canada, there are municipal elections. The voter turnouts in these cities is exceptionally low. In Calgary 39 per cent voted. In Edmonton the figure was even worse, with only 30 per cent voting. This low turnout represents not only a disappointment with the ability to affect change with a vote, but a failure of the system to encourage and educate people on voting. In Quebec, many cities and towns only have one individual in certain areas presenting themself for elections– this means that they automatically ascend to being an elected official without votes. Low participation in the political process is likely a result of disillusionment by young people around participating in politics, once again opening the door to fascism and the far right. The voter turnout in Montreal this year is likely to be less than forty per cent, though we will find that out on Sunday.

In Quebec, corruption runs amok in the CAQ. This week saw some of the darkest, most substantial regressions to democracy that the province has seen since before the quiet revolution.

The CAQ declared an open war on Unions in a law that will likely pass quickly. This bill will cause major problems for unions with less than 200 employees. It also allows the government much more control over the financial operations of unions, as well as an obvious conflict of interest on the part of the provincial government, who is trying to prevent Unions from have as much direct action in politics as they currently do. A move that seems to be because unions have strongly stood against the CAQ and their anti-union policies that have continuously had a major detrimental affect on those in Quebec who are middle to lower income.

They also quickly passed a bill that will ban children from covering their faces in schools, a draconian bill interrupting the freedom of expression enshrined in the Canadian Charther of rights and freedoms.

This week we released the breaking news that the minister, Simon Jolin-Barrette, ignored the wishes of feminist organizations by introducing abortion legislation into the National Assembly.

The biggest news out of Quebec was the extreme overreach of the government in implementing bill 2 and potentially causing a mass exodus of Quebec doctors from the province. Already 170 doctors have applied to work in other provinces, with more expected to leave. Meanwhile, the minister, Lionel Carmant, has left the CAQ after his daughter (a doctor) said she was thinking of leaving the province because of bill 2. Carmant was was of the “manifeto signatories” who helped define the CAQ’s identity.

In Ontario, Doug Ford is attempting to take away renters rights, although the worst of his propositions was thrown away. In the government’s bill 60, they are removing many tools of tenants to defend themselves against landlords in situations where they are being renovicted, or illegally evicted. It dereases the total payment allocated to renters if they are kicked out of their apartment, encouraging more landlords to throw their tenants on the street by lowering the penalties. It is likely to lead to an increase in homelessness when this bill passes.

In Alberta, the government ignored the democratic rights of its citizens when it used the Notwithstanding clause to force teachers back to work. The teachers were legally protesting, following all of the rules, and instead of good faith negotiation, Danielle Smith ignored the rights of Canadian citizens and used the infamous notwithstanding clause to force them back to work. The unions have vowed unprecedented action, and are building towards a general strike.

Still, there is some positive news. This week the federal government announced money for fighting scams and fraud everywhere in the country. “Budget 2025 will introduce Canada’s first-ever whole-of-government National Anti-Fraud Strategy.

As a first step, the government will introduce legislative amendments requiring banks to have policies to prevent and address fraud, while giving consumers more control over their bank accounts.”

This is extremely important, seeing as the banks are not on the hook for people being frauded right now. More legislation in this vein would do well to protect our most vulnerable from being frauded.

The government is also looking to improve its competition guidelines. This comes at a time where we need a rapid expansion of monopoly crackdowns, seeing as there are few banks in the country, as well as only three major grocery store chains. These monopolies are leading to price gouging and anti-competitive behaviour. In the current Canadian, capitalist framework, these initiatives need to be expanded at a rate not seen since the great depression.

In BC, the province is looking to present a report on democratic reform. 93 per cent of respondents to a recent series of public hearings wanted proportional representation.

Still, not enough is being done to protect our democracy, and backsliding is likely to continue unless we see massive movement to repair institutions that are already at their breaking point.