The past several years have witnessed unprecedented attacks on democracies and democratic principles. These attacks take many forms, including: physical attacks on government buildings and institutions and threats to public officials, both appointed and elected, and their families; the flourishing of unfounded, conspiracy theories about “widespread voter fraud” spread by partisan social media and some mainstream media; elected officials who refuse to recognise the results of fairly administered elections and lawyers who enable election deniers by commencing litigation without credible evidence; and the concomitant flurry of legislation to “reform” voting systems. The collective effect of these attacks has been to undermine public confidence in the democratic system and elections, waste countless hours of time and resources on recounts and investigations, discourage responsible and fair-minded people from serving as workers and officials in the election process, and suppress the votes to gain political advantage.
This session will provide a brief overview of these “attacks” in the United States, Canada and Mexico, the collective threat to the democracy which these attacks present, and what lawyers can do to avoid and prevent future attacks. The speakers will also explore the very difficult legal issues some of these attacks present, including:
- balancing the competing interests of preventing the publication of blatant untruths with the right of free speech;
- reconciling the right of everyone eligible to have their vote counted with the need to prevent voter fraud; and
- balancing the necessary governmental administration over the election process with avoiding the hijacking of elections by partisan government officials.
INFORMATION ON THE SPEAKERS
Hon Louise Arbour
Louise Arbour is a Senior Counsel at Borden Ladner Gervais LLP. She completed in December 2018 her mandate at the UN as Special Representative of the Secretary-General on International Migration, which led to the adoption of the Global Compact for Migration. She has also held other senior positions at the United Nations, including High Commissioner for Human Rights (2004-2008) and Chief Prosecutor for The International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and for Rwanda (1996 to 1999).
She formerly sat as a justice of the Supreme Court of Canada from 1999 to 2004, on the Court of Appeal for Ontario and the Supreme Court of Ontario. She chaired an inquiry commission that investigated events at the Prison for Women in Kingston, Ontario, and has also served as a member of the Global Commission on Elections, Democracy and Security. In 2021 she was appointed to carry out a review into the Canadian Armed Forces and Department of National Defence, in response to reports of harassment and sexual misconduct within Canada’s military.
Madam Arbour also formerly served as an ad hoc judge in the International Court of Justice and as a member of the Advisory Panel to the Minister of Defence on Canada's Defence Policy Review. She is currently a member of the Global Commission on Drug Policy, the International Commission Against the Death Penalty and the Advisory Board of The Coalition for the International Criminal Court.
Lorenzo Cordova
Lorenzo Cordova is a Mexican lawyer, academic and legal researcher. He was appointed by the Chamber of Deputies as member, for a period of nine years, of the National Electoral Institute (INE), Mexico’s Constitutional agency that organizes and overseas elections, were he served as Chair.
He is currently Investigador Titular “B” de Tiempo Completo at the Instituto de Investigaciones Jurídicas in UNAM, where he coordinated the Electoral Law department. He is a level III researcher at the Sistema Nacional de Investigadores (SNI).
Lorenzo has authored many articles on electoral, Constitutional, and political theory. He has authored, co-authored, and coordinated more than a dozen books, most recently “La Democracia no se toca”, coauthored with Ciro Murayama (Planeta, Mexico, 2023). He is a regular contributor to El Universal, one of Mexico’s oldest and mayor newspapers.
(Please note, at the end of the panel, the IBA and the NARF will give speaker Mr. Cordova a recognition for his defense of the rule of law, democratic values, and free and fair elections).
