Controversial Election Commissioner.Yves Côté is set to resign in June after a decade in office, says Blacklock’s Reporter..Côté is best known for awarding SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. a settlement more than $117,803 in illegal campaign contributions, but prosecuting Rebel News Network Ltd. for a book promotion deemed too political..“The Commissioner plays a key role in safeguarding Canadians’ trust in their democratic process,” Elections Canada wrote in a notice..The agency has posted Côté’s job and said it “intends to appoint a Commissioner of Canada Elections for a 10-year term” in 2022..Côté is a former $204,000-a year assistant deputy minister of justice named Commissioner in 2012. The position is filled by appointment through the Chief Electoral Officer, not Parliament..“We are committed to using all the tools at our disposal to enforce the legislation and to protect the integrity of the electoral process,” Côté told the Senate in 2018..But in a 2016 case the Commissioner waived prosecution of SNC-Lavalin Group for funneling large contributions to political organizers in Québec in breach of the Canada Elections Act..A compliance agreement showed SNC-Lavalin managers illegally paid $109,616 to Liberal Party and $8,187 to Conservative Party organizers in the period from 2004 to 2011..A single former SNC-Lavalin executive, Normand Morin, in 2018 pleaded guilty to illegal contributions and was fined $2,000..“There can’t be a prosecution unless the Commissioner of Elections recommends it, and unfortunately the Commissioner has rolled over,” Duff Conacher, co-founder of the advocacy group Democracy Watch, said in an interview at the time..“The Commissioner failed to recommend one, even when there was clear evidence of a violation.”.The evidence showed SNC-Lavalin managers reimbursed employees and spouses who had made party donations in their own names, a breach of federal law..“In some cases these contributions were reimbursed in the form of false refunds for personal expenses or payment of fictitious bonuses or other benefits,” the Commissioner wrote in the consent agreement..Côté never commented publicly on the SNC-Lavalin agreement..And in a separate case, the Commissioner fined Rebel News Network over a book promotion he claimed was election advertising..Rebel News last January 22 was fined $3,000 for using lawn signs to promote the 2019 launch of a book entitled Librano$: What The Media Won’t Tell You About Justin Trudeau’s Corruption..“The book’s launch two days before the beginning of a general election held at a fixed date, the decision to promote the book using lawn signs — a staple of election campaigns but not of book launches — statements by Rebel News and its director linking the signs to the election, and the advertising message’s content that clearly opposed a registered party and its leader give reasonable grounds to believe Rebel News carried out ‘election advertising,’” said the Notices Of Violation..Rebel appealed the fine to a federal judge. The case is pending..“The free exchange of political ideas is essential to a properly functioning democracy,” wrote Rebel lawyers..“Free expression is valued above all as being instrumental to democratic governance. Political speech is the most valuable and protected type of expression.”
