It’s becoming more and more evident that a nerve–a raw nerve–has been struck in many Canadians over a court ruling earlier this month that–unless the Supreme Court rules otherwise–will disenfranchise an estimated 1.4 million Canadian citizens living abroad.
The rising disenchantment started to build last weekend when Mark MacKinnon, the Globe and Mail’s chief foreign correspondent, wrote a column under the headline “I am Canadian–but not as much as I used to be.”
In the column, Mr. MacKinnon, a multiple winner of Canada’s National Newspaper Award, lamented an Ontario Court of Appeal ruling that upheld restrictions voting by Canadian expatriates.
On Tuesday–again in the Globe and Mail–actor Donald Sutherland (see story below) wrote an opinion piece under the heading “I’m a Canadian–and I should have the right to vote.”
Mr. Sutherland’s on-line comments drew (as of Wednesday morning) 750 comments, the great majority of them supportive. (Mr. Sutherland’s essay was repeated in the Globe’s letters to the editor column on Wednesday).
Because of the nature of their work, both Mr. MacKinnon and Mr. Sutherland for the most part live abroad, as do the 1.4 other Canadians affected by an Ontario Court of Appeal decision this month that upheld voting restrictions enacted under a Liberal government in 1993.
The law prohibited Canadian expatriates from voting if they lived outside of Canada for more than five years.
Over the years, Mr. MacKinnon noted in his column, the initial restrictions were softened and the five-year-clock was reset after each visit home.
“Now,” wrote Mr. MacKinnon referring to the Ontario Court of Appeal ruling, “after a brief period during which the ban was ruled unconstitutional by the Ontario Superior Court–the tougher law is back.”
The appeal of the 2014 Ontario Superior Court ruling was brought to the Ontario Court of Appeal by the federal government. (The CBC reported in March that the appeal cost Ottawa at least $1.3 million.)
Mr. MacKinnon, who is based in London, wrote his weekend column while back in Canada on vacation.
He spoke to RCI by phone from his parents’ home in Prescott, Ontario.
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