The Liberal government is introducing reforms that it says will allow the country to better detect and protect elections from foreign and domestic interference, bribery, disinformation and a host of other potential threats to democracy. 

Government House leader Steven MacKinnon said the changes are necessary to protect Canadian democracy in a changing world.

“Canada will call out interference in our democratic processes whatever or whoever the source,” MacKinnon said in Ottawa on Thursday.

“These targeted priority amendments address recommendations from the public inquiry into foreign interference in federal electoral process and democratic institutions, and also from the chief electoral officer and the commissioner of Canada elections.”

The bulk of the government’s efforts are in Bill C-25, the Strong and Free Elections Act, which would amend the rules on privacy, political financing, leadership contests and their enforcement under the Canada Elections Act.

Strengthening election safeguards

Bill C-25 would make rules around election interference, that were only applicable during an election period, enforceable during non-election periods as well. That includes offering or accepting bribes to influence a vote, engaging in foreign interference or broadcasting partisan election information into Canada from outside the country.

Efforts to curtail long ballots, where dozens of candidates are registered in a riding as part of a protest, are being made harder to organize. Voters would only be able to nominate one candidate, and each candidate would require a unique official agent.

MacKinnon says that while he understands there is a message that accompanies the long ballot protest, he said it is still “harassing behaviour.”

“The results of these efforts make accessibility difficult, make the work of our world-renowned elections agency prohibitively difficult,” he said. “Citizens do not like this, Elections Canada does not like this and there are other ways to put forward the message.”

Bans on impersonating election officials or candidates in order to mislead voters are being extended to include the use of deepfakes — hyperrealistic fake images and videos produced with artificial intelligence — providing they are not being used solely for the purpose of political satire or parody.

Under Bill C-25 it would also be against the law to tamper or interfere with computer systems in order to disrupt an election, and all proposed and existing electoral crimes would be deemed illegal whether they take place inside or outside the country.

New privacy protections

Federal political parties would be required to ensure the private information of their members is properly protected. External vendors with access to that member information would also need to have safeguards in place.

When information held by a party is breached, those impacted by the breach would have to be quickly and accurately informed.

There are also provisions that would prohibit the selling of member information, disclosing member information maliciously or giving a misleading reason for collecting the information in the first place.

The bill would limit Elections Canada to only providing a list of electors for a given riding to qualified political parties, in order to limit how far that information is disseminated. 

In what Mackinnon described as “a security measure” to prevent harassment, previous rules that required a five-day notice before holding a fundraising event would no longer be required.

Rules that require the home address of returning officers to be published in the Canada Gazette would also be replaced with rules that only require the municipality and province to be listed. 

Candidates eligible to file personal security expenses would be be able to claim a maximum of $3,250, instead of $3,000.

Government officials speaking on background explained that while most of the amendments would take effect immediately, parties would be given three months to make the privacy changes.

Election financing, nominations and leadership contests

The rules that govern electoral influence during a campaign — including foreign donations and interference, bribes, intimidation and spreading misinformation — would be expanded to cover party nomination and leadership votes.

Bill C-25 would also prevent political parties and third-party political actors from accepting donations in the form of money orders, prepaid cards or cryptocurrency, which the government says are hard to track.

Third parties can use their own money to make political donations, but they cannot exceed 10 per cent of the group’s annual revenues.

Strengthening enforcement 

The fines that Elections Canada can impose on individuals and parties for violating the Elections Canada Act would be significantly increased. 

The maximum penalty for an individual that breaks the law would rise from $1,500 to $25,000 while an organization’s maximum fine would increase from $5,000 to $100,000.

Outside the people or parties that are fined, anyone proven to have conspired with them or advised them could also be held accountable. 

The Commissioner of Canada Elections, who has the power to impose monetary penalties, is also being given new tools to investigate possible breaches of the Canada Elections Act. 

Those tools include the power to compel people to testify and require them to produce some documents without court approval.

Bill C-25 would also give the commissioner the authority to reach out to other countries through information-sharing agreements to investigate suspected instances of foreign electoral interference. 

The Liberal government also announced other steps to protect Canada’s democratic institutions — including investing $31.5 million over five years to boost Global Affairs Canada (GAC)’s ability to detect and respond to foreign interference threats.

GAC would use the money to improve how it works with other government departments and foreign governments to detect not only disinformation, but also transnational repression. 

The federal government also updated a cabinet directive that would take on recommendations made by the public inquiry into foreign interference’s report. 

Those changes include formalizing a process for appointing someone outside of government to the newly created Co-ordinated Response to Threats to Elections panel. The panel will be responsible for the government’s overall response to foreign interference threats. 

Part of the panel’s job will be to improve how it communicates threats to the general public and then publish a report after an election detailing what foreign interference threats it saw and how it responded.