‘Sloppy’ election law lacks verification

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This article was published 09/12/2023 (1060 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A new amendment to the Municipal Councils and School Boards Elections Act pushed through by the previous Tory government was a “sloppy” move, a Brandon University professor said after new information was revealed about how the law played out for the first time in Brandon’s school board byelection in October.

The amendment to the act, Bill 230, which was put forward early this year by Brandon East Progressive Conservative MLA Len Isleifson and received royal assent in May, required candidates running for school boards and municipal councils to disclose whether they had pleaded guilty to or been convicted of crimes.

But last week, the Sun learned that one candidate who made an unsuccessful bid for the Brandon School Board disclosed a charge that did not line up with court records, raising concerns about verification processes during municipal elections.

“It’s pretty sloppy, quite frankly, on [the Tories’] part not to think through about how this is going to be verified,” BU political science professor Kelly Saunders told the Sun. “For something like this, if you truly want to improve accountability and transparency, you can’t rely on the honour system because that is not accountability.”

When putting his name forward in the October Brandon School Division byelection, candidate Scott MacMillan disclosed in an affidavit that he had been charged under the Criminal Code for improper storage of a firearm. But on Nov. 28 in Brandon provincial court, MacMillan was sentenced to seven months of house arrest for three charges — unauthorized possession of a firearm without a licence, and two charges of disobeying a court order.

He was charged with the firearm offence in 2019 and received a disobey court order charge in 2020 and and again in 2021. He pleaded guilty to all three charges in April 2023, just a few months before filling out the affidavit. He had no prior criminal record.

According to the province, the October byelection was the first school board election in Manitoba under the new law.

Isleifson told the Sun that his goal in putting the bill forward was to ensure that the public could make informed decisions, with knowledge of a candidate’s background. He said the amendment to the law brings municipal elections to the same standard as provincial elections, which also requires candidates to disclose any charges under the Criminal Code and Income Tax Act. The disclosures are then made publicly available.

Senior election officer for the byelection, Heather Ewasiuk, confirmed to the Sun that there was no verification process for the byelection. Candidates are required to fill out the form — a statement of disclosure of the charges — which Ewasiuk then collects and publishes online. A photo of MacMillan’s statement, which was published online, shows his signature on a written statement dated Sept. 28, disclosing a charge of improper storage of a firearm under the Criminal Code.

Isleifson agreed the current disclosure process does not have a verification system in place. The former MLA said the process is the same at the provincial level and that someone making an incorrect disclosure is more of a “credibility issue.”

“I would hope, on any bill that is brought forward, if there’s areas in there that were overlooked, or just not everything was thought about, or whatever the case is, if they need to be improved, I would hope that the current government would approve it,” Isleifson said.

But Saunders said if the law is aimed at improving accountability and transparency then it has to be more robust than a process that relies on the honour system.

“At the end of the day, the buck stops with the government to ensure that accountability is happening.”

Municipal and Northern Relations Minister Ian Bushie declined the Sun’s request for comment.

When asked about their process for candidate disclosure of criminal charges, Elections Manitoba cited section 55(1)5.1 of the Elections Act that requires candidates to provide a statement disclosing any criminal offence. A spokesperson wrote in an email to the Sun that the requirement is for candidates to self-declare, and those declarations are then made publicly available on the Elections Manitoba website.

“The legislation does not mandate an investigation of the statement provided by the prospective candidates,” the spokesperson wrote.

The Sun reached MacMillan at his home last week and he said the discrepancy between the firearm charge that he disclosed, improper storage, and the charge he pleaded guilty to, possession without a licence, was an honest mistake.

He said he only disclosed the firearm charge and not the two disobey court order charges because he thought the firearm charge was the main charge before the court.

Still, MacMillan believes that criminal charges shouldn’t be the focus of the conversation about someone’s ability serve on a school board.

“It would be a shame to have this topic taking precedent over what we’re really [at the board] to talk about and discuss,” MacMillan told the Sun.

MacMillan ran in the Brandon School Division byelection for Ward 1 but received the lowest number of votes, 57, out of the eight candidates. Kirk Carr won the election with 1,438 votes.

MacMillan was the only candidate in the election who disclosed criminal charges. None of the other candidates have criminal records, the Sun conformed.

A spokesperson for the province, citing sections 134 and 139 of the Act, said that any person who knowingly provides false or misleading information when required to do so may face a fine of up to $10,000 and/or imprisonment for up to one year. The spokesperson said any offences would be referred to the police for investigation and subsequent referral to the courts.

Meanwhile, Saunders said the public needs to have confidence in the people they are potentially going to elect to the school board, especially because these individuals will be making decisions about children. But she said that an independent and trustworthy verification process must be put in place for the law to be effective.

“I think issues related to criminality is important, but we need to make sure that there’s verification. Otherwise those processes are meaningless,” she said. “If we just rely on an honour system, that’s not how we ensure trust and accountability in the system.”

» gmortfield@brandonsun.com

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