An easy fix for a flawed law

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 11/12/2023 (380 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It’s a significant gap that makes it impossible for voters to be confident that they know the background of those seeking election to school boards and municipal councils throughout Manitoba.

As the Sun reported this past Saturday, the recent Brandon School Board by-election has exposed flaws in the newly-amended Municipal Councils and School Boards Elections Act with respect to who is responsible for verifying information provided by aspiring candidates, and what the consequences are if that information is not accurate.

The report discussed the case of Scott MacMillan, who ran for election in Ward 1 in the October by-election. Though he finished last among the eight candidates, it now appears that information he provided within his nomination document was not accurate.

Under recently-passed amendments to the Municipal Councils and School Boards Elections Act, each candidate’s nomination papers must include a statement disclosing any offence they have pled guilty to or been found guilty of under the Criminal Code, the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, The Income Tax Act (Manitoba), the Income Tax Act (Canada) “or any other law related to financial dishonesty that the Lieutenant Governor in Council has, by regulation, designated for the purpose of this section.”

Candidates are not required to disclose offences committed under the Youth Criminal Justice Act or the Young Offenders Act — in other words, offences committed when they were minors — nor offences for which they have been granted a pardon.

In his nomination papers, MacMillan said that he had been charged under the Criminal Code for improper storage of a firearm. The reality, however, was that he had in fact been charged with three criminal offences — unauthorized possession of a firearm without a licence, and two charges of disobeying a court order. He had in fact pled guilty to those three charges last April and he was sentenced on Nov. 28 to seven months of house arrest for those convictions.

Brandon voters did not know about those charges, nor MacMillan’s guilty plea, when they voted in the October by-election. That leads to some obvious questions: Would those who voted for MacMillan have voted for him if they knew the true information? Second, who bears responsibility for ensuring that the information disclosed by each candidate is correct?

It is impossible to know the answer to the first question and, given MacMillan’s last-place finish in the by-election, there is no fear that his inaccurate disclosure impacted the outcome of the contest. If MacMillan had been elected, however, he would have been eligible to take a seat at the school board table and make decisions affecting the future of our community’s children. That is, unless a citizen chose to go through the expensive, stressful process of challenging MacMillan’s election in court.

That leads to the second question posed above. Most citizens would reasonably assume that somebody involved in the administration of city council and school board elections is responsible for verifying the accuracy of the information provided by each candidate with respect to any prior convictions. That assumption is false, however.

As Saturday’s report made clear, there is currently no requirement under the law that the information be verified. The election officials confirm the eligibility of each person who signs each candidate’s nomination form, but they don’t check to see if each candidate’s disclosure regarding prior charges is accurate.

We are operating on the “honour system,” and that’s a gap in the legislation that needs to be fixed.

The solution would appear to be easy: amend the law to require election officials to verify information provided by candidates regarding prior offences. In the alternative, require each candidate to provide a criminal record certificate as part of their nomination papers.

By passing the amendments to the Municipal Councils and School Boards Elections Act, the Manitoba government decided that it is important for voters to know whether candidates for school boards and municipal councils have serious convictions in their past. Having made that decision, it is the government’s obligation to ensure that the information provided to the public is accurate.

The implementation of either of the measures outlined above would help to ensure that voters have the correct information about candidates before the election. More particularly, they could help avoid a repeat of the situation that has occurred with respect Mr. MacMillan’s candidacy.