Thousands sign petition to make fibbing parliamentarians pay political price

A Toronto man wants to make honesty the best political policy by passing a bill that would hold members of Parliament more accountable for telling lies.

Federico Sanchez has initiated an electronic petition to the House of Commons proposing legislation that might make politicians think twice about playing fast and loose with the truth.

The petition urges federal politicians to put forward a bill "to address the issue of perceived and actual misinformation being presented by MPs to the public."

The petition, which is working its way through the parliamentary process, says misinformation is a growing threat to the democratic process and a mechanism is needed to verify MPs' public statements to maintain trust in Canada's governing body.

An e-petition must gather 500 or more signatures to receive certification for presentation to the House, which opens the door to a formal government response.

The petition, which had more than 8,700 signatures as of Tuesday, closes on Nov. 27.

Sanchez, a physician, once ran unsuccessfully for political office as a Progressive Conservative in Ontario.

He said in an interview he doesn't really want to be a politician. Rather, Sanchez said he wants to prevent Canada from heading down the path of the United States, where he sees the unchecked spread of political misinformation eroding public trust.

"We don't have as bad a problem with misinformation coming from elected officials," he said. "But we are headed in that direction, if you ask me."

The petition points to a process unfolding in Wales as a possible approach for Canada.

The Welsh government has said it will introduce a law that would disqualify politicians or candidates from public office if they are found guilty of deliberate deception by an independent judicial process.

A Welsh civil society group, the Institute for Constitutional and Democratic Research, subsequently proposed a model based on existing regulatory law.

Under the model, if a court found that a politician had made a false or misleading statement of fact, it could issue a "correction notice" directing the individual to make a public correction.

If the politician refused to comply with the notice within seven days, without a reasonable excuse, the court could issue an order preventing that politician from holding office in the Welsh Parliament for a set period of time.

Any registered voter would be allowed to apply for a correction order, but the court would be able to dismiss any application deemed to be trivial, vexatious or lacking a reasonable chance of success.

"This model removes the ambiguity of previous models because there is no requirement to determine intent, and preserves the freedom of expression of politicians because they have an opportunity to correct the misinformation without sanction," the Institute for Constitutional and Democratic Research says.

Canadian politics professor Alex Marland said that while the push to hold MPs more accountable will generate welcome discussion, he sees problems with putting such a plan into practice.

The political world can be complicated and distinguishing true from false is not always easy, said Marland, who teaches at Acadia University.

Sometimes a politician might utter a falsehood or decline to reveal information with the greater good in mind, he said.

"The weird thing about politics is, sometimes, we can't live in a world of complete purity," he said. "It's a very messy field to be in."

Voters should be the ones to decide who can serve in the legislature, Marland added. "It's not up to appointed members of a judiciary."

Marland said attention should turn instead to reining in social media platforms that accelerate the spread of political misinformation.

"Why is it that somehow we give a free pass to the platforms online?" he said. "If they're the ones that are allowing deceit and lies and other things to to propagate, why is the focus not on them?"