Complaints of foreign influence on third-party advertising in 2015 federal campaign soar
The exact nature of the complaints — whether they relate to undue influence by foreigners or unreported spending — is unclear.

TheStar.com
May 23, 2017
Tonda Maccharles and Alex Ballingall

Canada’s top elections investigation office has received 105 complaints about the influential role played by third parties in the 2015 federal election campaign.

That’s a much higher number than the 12 complaints filed about the previous 2011 campaign, and higher than the 35 complaints initially reported to parliament after the last election.

It comes as the federal Liberal government vows to modernize election financing rules governing third-parties, and has instructed Canada’s electronic spy agency, the CSE, to review how vulnerable Canada’s election system is to foreign influence.

The exact nature of the complaints — whether they relate to undue influence by foreigners or unreported spending by third parties in the six-month window before, or during, a campaign — is unclear.

The office of Yves Côté, Commissioner of Canada Elections, refused to discuss the complaints received, or whether or not it has opened investigations into them.

Michelle Laliberté, a spokesperson for the chief investigator, said longstanding policy prevents Côté from commenting on complaints received, and he is required by law not to discuss ongoing investigations.

However, news of the soaring number came on a day when two Conservative party members publicized their own formal complaints about improper foreign influence by the left-leaning U.S.-based environmental pressure group, Tides Foundation, in the last campaign.

Alberta MP Michael Cooper, the Conservative deputy justice critic, wrote to Côté’s office to ask him to begin an investigation into almost $700,000 in contributions from Tides to eight Canadian registered third-parties in 2015.

Cooper listed the Council of Canadians, Dogwood Initiative, Ecology Ottawa, Equieterre, Greenpeace Canada, Toronto350, West Coast Environmental Law Association, West Coast Environmental Law Research Foundation — as groups he said received money from the U.S. advocacy group.

Cooper’s complaint is that these groups received thousands of dollars from a U.S. interest group during the same year as an election in which they were active as third-party campaigners. It is possible that they used this money on election advertising, which could contravene sections of the Elections Canada Act that prohibit foreign influence on voters as well as the use of foreign-donations on election campaign advertising by third parties, he said in an interview.

Cooper pointed to Côté’s testimony before a Senate committee, in which Côté said his office interprets the law to mean third parties can’t use foreign contributions on election advertising within the six months before the writ is dropped. That means any money from Tides between February 2015 and election day in October would be offside, Cooper said.

“There was a clear, clean transfer of money,” Cooper told the Star on Tuesday. “That raises broader concerns about foreign entities and foreign interests trying to influence our democratic politics.”

In addition to Cooper’s call for an investigation, former Conservative MP Joan Crockatt — who lost her seat in Calgary in 2015 — says she submitted a separate complaint to Elections Canada. Her allegation is based on a report from her group Canada Decides, which she said investigated the flow of $1.96 million in foreign money from the Tides Foundation to third party groups in Canada that were active during the 2015 vote.

Crockatt declined to provide the full report to the Star, while Cooper said he plans to table her report in the House of Commons next week. Cooper said he has been in touch with Crockatt on her complaint, but has not read the final report she submitted to Elections Canada.

In an interview, Crockatt echoed Cooper’s complaint, that the flow of money from Tides to third party groups in Canada brings up the possibility that foreign cash was used during the 2015 campaign in breach of Canada’s elections law.

“We’re talking about the letter of the law, and we’re also talking about the sanctity of elections,” she said. “This does not seem right. Surely this cannot be right under Canadian election law.”

The role of third parties has grabbed the attention of the elections watchdog and the federal Liberal party which promised to make election financing rules clearer.

According to a report by former head of Elections Canada Marc Mayrand, there were 114 third parties registered with Elections Canada, compared with 55 for the 41st general election.

In a statement emailed to the Star, Karina Gould, Minister of Democratic Institutions, said Canadian citizens and permanent residents are only allowed to donate up to $1,550 a year to political parties or candidates.

“There are tough, fair laws in place today that apply to third party spending and election activity,” she said. “We intend to review the limits on the amounts political parties and third parties can spend during elections, and propose measures to ensure that spending between elections is subject to reasonable limits as well. We look forward to working with parliamentarians and other partners in this important work.”

At a senate committee on April 13, Côté suggested Parliament re-examine the regime put in place 17 years ago “with a view to ensuring that a level playing field is maintained for all participants.”

Côté said the financing of third-party activities is regulated “only to the extent that the financing is used to fund election advertising during an election period.”

He said many types of expenses, other than advertising, such as costs incurred for research and policy development, are not regulated at all.

“This means, for example, that it is not illegal for a third party to use foreign contributions to fund activities that do not include the transmission of election advertising messages.”

Côté said his office received a “significant number” of complaints about the 2015 campaign, “many more than had been filed with respect to the previous election” about third parties. A common perception, he said, was that third parties were able to affect “unfair electoral outcomes.”