"They can vote," said Latimer, "but work could be done to make it easier for them.". It is a priority for CBC to create a website that is accessible to all Canadians including people with visual, hearing, motor and cognitive challenges. Inmates then get a special ballot with a blank space. Prisoners do not vote on election day. If you are looking to give feedback on our new site, please send it along to, To view this site properly, enable cookies in your browser. All prisoners have the right to vote in the federal election. But Elections Canada says the ballots are opened and read out loud in a group of designated observers. Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin, writing for the majority, said "the right to vote lies at the heart of democracy in Canada.". Sauve says some prisoners are paying attention to this election campaign by tuning into news and debates on TVs in their cells. Hence, the rules differed substantially between the colonies. A more controversial example is Sauvé v. Canada (2002), in which it was found that prisoners could vote. Read our, I'm a print subscriber, link to my account, Avoid the use of toxic and offensive language.
a reasonable limitation in the context of the charter; a rational penalty, or something that works against civic responsibility and respect for the rule of law. The section has generated some case law expanding the franchise.
"Surprisingly, there's a number that lean towards the Green party, because they're concerned about the environment. Canadians behind bars have not always been allowed to vote. The 63-year-old, who is still fighting to have his conviction overturned, works as a peer support counsellor for prisoners, most of them lifers, in prisons in Ontario. There is nothing specific to voting while under house arrest — also known as conditional sentence — in the Elections Act. That changed in 1993, when Parliament amended the law to allow prisoners serving sentences of less than two years to vote. All prisoners were first eligible to vote in the 2004 federal election, a decade late for Sauve, who had been released on parole. Elections staff must dig through a long list of every riding and candidate in the country to find out who an inmate can vote for. That's a worry, said Catherine Latimer, executive director of the John Howard Society, given that some names are more complicated than others. The ruling said that 1993 federal legislation that took the vote away violates fundamental rights. Jail time is supposed to rehabilitate prisoners, and taking away the vote works against that. … Voter turnout among incarcerated Canadians in the 2015 federal election was 50.5 per cent, compared with an overall turnout of 68 per cent for the general population. All prisoners were first eligible to vote in the 2004 federal election, a decade late for Sauve, who had been released on parole. However, the unique circumstances of each of the colonies meant … © Copyright 2020 The Globe and Mail Inc. All rights reserved.
Prisoners in all provincial jails and federal prisons get a chance to vote Friday — always 10 days before an election — in special advance polling stations set up in the institutions. And with no access to the internet, how do they know who to vote for? Occasionally, he says, he runs into a Conservative supporter. Other options are the residence of any relative of his or her common-law partner or spouse, or a person the prisoner would live with if not incarcerated. After a three-year investigation, a legislative committee declared the election void (not unusual in tumultuous nineteenth-century politics). Before it came down, he said "one of our fundamental rights is the right to vote," a position backed by bar societies, civil liberties groups and aboriginal organizations. During his legal battle, the government changed the Elections Act to give the vote to provincial inmates serving sentences of less than two years. Some men he's talked to are leaning toward the NDP. Prisoners clearly can't go to a polling station, so how do they cast their ballot? But the federal government argued that taking away the vote sends a clear message to inmates. In 1988, section 3 had been used to grant suffrage to federal judges and those in mental institutions. When Rick Sauve visits prisoners these days, they have something new to discuss — the federal election. And in 2002, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that denying longer term inmates the ability to vote was a violation of their Charter rights. We hope to have this fixed soon. However, according to Elections Canada spokesperson Nathalie de Montigny, Canadians under house arrest have the same voting rights and options as other Canadians. That means: Comments that violate our community guidelines will be removed. If they are allowed to leave their house, they can vote in advance, on election day or at any Elections Canada office during the campaign. Closed Captioning and Described Video is available for many CBC shows offered on CBC Gem. Sauv welcomed the ruling. They pester him with questions: What are the polls saying? His or her residence before being incarcerated. Prisoners did not initially have their right to vote protected by Section Three of the Charter. If the group agrees on the voter's intention, even if the name is misspelled, the ballot is counted. Some information in it may no longer be current. Box 500 Station A Toronto, ON Canada, M5W 1E6.
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