Election law gives list of all voters to white nationalist party,
White national party leader has access to names, addresses of all Canadian voters
OTTAWA—Canada gave an accused white supremacist the name and address of every voter in the country and the ability to issue tax rebates for donations to his cause.
Now, anti-hate activists are calling on the government to change elections laws to make sure neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups can’t enjoy the perks and powers granted to federal political parties.
The Canadian Nationalist Party, which pushes for a white ethno-state dominated by Canadians of “European descent,” has been a registered political party in Canada for two years.
That means the party and its leader, 29-year old Travis Patron, can issue tax rebates for donations to their cause. But, more troubling for anti-hate activists, it also gives the CNP the name and home address of every registered voter in Canada.
Bernie Farber, a longtime anti-racism advocate and the head of the Canadian Anti-Hate Network, says that makes the CNP “a full-fledged Nazi party that is partially funded by the Canadian government.”
More significantly, he said, the party has received a list of every eligible voter in Canada. “That’s not something that makes me happy as person who advocates against these kind of hate groups. He could share (the list), he could sell it, who knows what he could do.”
Farber and a number of other anti-racism activists have deregistered themselves as voters to remove their information from the list — effectively disenfranchising themselves out of fear for their safety, should the voter list fall into the wrong hands.
Under Canadian elections law, anyone can form a political party so long as they collect the signatures of 250 voters and file the necessary paperwork. A party becomes “registered” once it runs at least one candidate in an election or byelection.
The CNP met those criteria, running three candidates in the 2019 election. Each of its candidates finished with just a handful of votes.
In a statement, Elections Canada said it has no mechanism to allow the independent agency to disqualify parties based on “ideology.”
“It would be up to Parliament to decide if they want to amend the (Canada Elections Act) to exclude certain platforms or beliefs from participating in federal elections, or if they wanted to prevent individuals accused or convicted of specific activities from leading a party,” a spokesperson for Elections Canada told the Star.
But Dominic LeBlanc, the minister responsible for Elections Canada, closed the door to any such changes.
“Federal elections are an important opportunity for Canadian electors to be heard, and to express their opinions by casting a ballot. It is important that the regulations of political activities in the Canada Elections Act respect the rights laid out in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, including the right of every citizen to be qualified for membership in the House of Commons,” Corinne Havard, a spokesperson for LeBlanc’s office, said in a written statement.
“Accordingly, we have no plans to amend the (law) to require the chief electoral officer to deregister a party on the basis of its views.”
Michael Levitt, the president of the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Centre for Holocaust Studies and a former Liberal MP, said the government needs to act to ensure extremist and fringe groups are not given the privileges of federal political parties.
“It’s tax rebates, it’s the voters list, it’s the aura of credibility that being an officially recognized party brings to the mix for a group that has called the Jewish people a parasitic tribe, and expressed anti-Semitic conspiracy theories,” Levitt said in an interview with the Star.
“It gives this false sense of heft behind this movement,” he said. “It’s critical that we are addressing these issues as they come up. We know that hate is on the rise around the world, and we’re certainly not immune in Canada.
“I get that it’s complicated … (but) it’s clearly thinking that I think the government and Parliament has to do.”
Patron was charged with antiSemitic hate crimes last week after Levitt’s group filed a criminal complaint about a 2019 video in which he talked about a “parasitic tribe.” Patron used common anti-Semitic tropes in the video, suggesting unnamed groups had infiltrated central banks and media companies in a bid to control Canadians.
Asked Thursday, Patron refused to say who he was referring to, or to name specific individuals he believed had “infiltrated” Canadian institutions. He also denied knowing that his insinuations were common anti-Semitic smears that have been used by racists for more than a century.
Patron said he has not shared the voter list outside of his party. He said there are fewer than 1,000 members of the CNP, and donations amounted to a few thousand dollars last year.
“That’s not something that makes me happy … He could share (the list), he could sell it, who knows what he could do.”
BERNIE FARBER
CANADIAN ANTI-HATE NETWORK