SoVote

Decentralized Democracy

House Hansard - 98

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
September 20, 2022 10:00AM
Context: House Hansard - 98 - Sep/20/22
Mr. Garnett Genuis (Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, CPC)
  • Sep/20/22 7:10:31 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, it is a pleasure to be here tonight. Objective International analysis shows that Canada faces democratic decline. Our democracy in Canada is not about to cease to exist, but it is weakening under pressure from the Prime Minister. The International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, or IDEA, in Stockholm is the global authority on democracy evaluation. Its data underlines that Canada's score on key variables has dropped precipitously since 2015 when the Liberal government took office. This is not just what Conservatives are saying. The Objective International monitor shows that the Liberal Prime Minister is bad for democracy. According to IDEA, Canada's performance is particularly dropping as it relates to checks on government, which are the constraints on arbitrary executive power. On this metric, we are now lower than the United States and every single country in western Europe. It may be that we have always had a strong executive branch in Canada, but the Prime Minister is presiding over a dramatic increase in his own ability to exercise arbitrary power, regardless of the concerns raised by citizens and other institutions. This data particularly shows that the weakening of Parliament and the capacity for Parliament to scrutinize government action is driving that democratic decline. The government increasingly sees Parliament as a rubber-stamp body instead of a meaningful check on government power and the beating heart of a genuinely deliberative democracy. There are many specific events that underline this decline and the ability of Parliament and other institutions to constrain arbitrary executive power: the SNC-Lavalin scandal, where the Prime Minister's Office sought to influence then attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould; the suspension of debate and committee study on key legislative items; the prolonged suspension of Parliament during the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic; the refusal of the government to hand over documents ordered by parliamentary committees; and the use of the Emergencies Act by the government to freeze the bank accounts of citizens they disagreed with without due process. These are some of the examples that mark the clear expansion of the use of arbitrary executive power and, therefore, the weakening of democracy. The key institutions that check government power in healthy democracies are Parliament, the media and the courts. The Liberal government is undermining Parliament through its abuses of process here and the NDP has been complicit along the way. Liberals are also undermining the independence of the media through public subsidy and through efforts of social media control. The media play a critical role in a free democracy, yet the government is trying to bring the media under its influence by introducing state subsidies for private media and proposing legislation to control social media algorithms. Needless to say, the government's efforts to co-opt and control the media are a much greater threat to democracy than simple media criticism. Trust is being lost in our institutions precisely because, according to the international data, our institutions are losing their ability to constrain government and a particular executive action. The threat to democracy in Canada is from those who are causing this phenomenon, not from those who are pointing it out. Trust in our institutions is declining because our institutions themselves are weakening in their ability to check government power under increasing pressure from the growing arbitrary power of an undemocratic Prime Minister's Office. The Liberals need to face up to the problems they are causing. We cannot solve the problems we are facing together if we do not have a functioning independent Parliament and free media that depends on viewers instead of on the state for its support. Therefore, I ask these questions tonight: Is the government prepared to recognize the damage it has done in the last seven years? Is it prepared to change course and support the strengthening of Parliament, free media and Canadian democracy?
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Context: House Hansard - 98 - Sep/20/22
Mr. Garnett Genuis
  • Sep/20/22 7:18:19 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, respectfully, that was a particularly insubstantive response to some very serious and legitimate concerns. What I said in my introductory comments was that international monitors have identified democratic decline, particularly around the ability of institutions to check the power of the executive, as being a key concern in Canada. The parliamentary secretary made no mention of the increasing power of the executive to exercise arbitrary power at the expense of key institutions like Parliament. He made no mention of specific issues. He talked about how the government cancelled Parliament for a while, but had a Zoom call going on where ministers could be asked questions. That I think precisely demonstrates the problem. The government thought that cancelling Parliament and having Zoom-call questions was somehow a replacement for democracy. Now he said the reason the government is subsidizing some media outlets is that it is concerned about fake news. This is a government that, like former president Trump, persistently calls those who disagree with it “fake news”. On the one hand, the Liberals say they want to address fake news through social media regulation, and on the other hand they accuse the opposition of fake news any time we disagree with them. This is the problem. This is the authoritarian tool kit the government is using. It is threatening our democracy. The parliamentary secretary should take stock of the problems we face. He should take stock of what international independent monitors are saying, what the objective analysis is showing, which is that on the checks on government metric, that is on the ability of institutions to check the arbitrary power of government, Canada is in decline.
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