A petition you should consider signing

Opinion

Let’s just keep track of e-6679 and ask ourselves whether it’s not about time for plenty of us to sign it.

What is e-6679? Well, it’s an electronic petition to the House of Commons, suggesting that federal politicians and candidates who knowingly mislead the public should face penalties, including, potentially, being disqualified from sitting in the House of Commons.

Here’s the prayer — the details — of the petition.

“Whereas: Members of Parliament (MPs) have been accused of making important public statements that are false and without evidence; Misinformation is a growing threat to the proper functioning of, as well as faith in, our democratic process; A mechanism is needed to verify MPs’ public statements to maintain trust in our governing body; Artificial Intelligence is amplifying misinformation; Current events in the United States demonstrate the dangers of not addressing this problem; and The Institute for Constitutional and Democratic Research (ICDR) of Wales, UK, proposed a white paper entitled ‘A Model for Political Honesty,’ created because ‘the Welsh Government will bring forward legislation before 2026 for the disqualification of Members and candidates found guilty of deliberate deception through an independent judicial process and will invite the committee to make proposals to that effect.’

“We, the undersigned, citizens of Canada, call upon the House of Commons to propose a bill to address the issue of perceived and actual misinformation being presented by MPs to the public, provided that such a bill could be informed by details outlined in the white paper proposed by the ICDR.”

The Free Press editorialized about the proposed Welsh law exactly one year and one day ago (If you can’t tell the truth, lose the job, Oct. 5, 2024), saying “The transition wouldn’t be an easy one: politicians have grown used to parroting — without ever thinking of fact-checking — the instant “facts” that pop up on social media, and, frankly, have contributed their own falsehoods to the mix, virtually with impunity. … It would be astounding if politicians had to stay within the bounds of truth to stay in office. It might make them just a little bit more circumspect. Spout ‘alternative facts,’ find alternative employment.”

It’s a petition, by the way, that’s gathering support.

When today’s editorial was started, last Thursday afternoon, 28,041 Canadians — including 1,189 Manitobans — had signed the petition. By Friday morning, it was 29,220 — and it will keep growing. Until Nov. 27 at two minutes to 11 a.m. (in Manitoba), any citizen or Canadian resident can go online on the Our Commons site https://www.ourcommons.ca/petitions/en/Petition/Details?Petition=e-6679) and sign.

Will it change the tenor of Canadian federal politics? The track record of politicians paying attention to requests in the form of petitions is a spotty one at best. (That’s being polite — the chance of a petition spurring meaningful political change is akin to the proverbial staying power of a snowball in Hell.)

But once a petition reaches 500 signatures, it will be tabled in the House of Commons and the government will have to give a formal response.

The government isn’t the only body that should have to respond.

While we’re at it, why not poll each and every one of Canada’s 343 members of Parliament, and ask if they would support the intent of the petition, even to the point of removing parliamentarians found by the court system to have deliberately misled Canadians?

We should, as a matter of course, expect nothing less than complete unanimity amongst our elected representatives that deliberately telling lies to the electorate is wrong.

The planned Welsh law would allow politicians to clearly and publicly apologize and retract false statements. Maybe we could have a liar’s box — a short suspension — for politicians who have a regular record of having to retract.

Those who don’t retract?

Well, they could look for a different job.