defend Canadian electoral process from cyber threats – Minister of Democratic Institutions Mandate

In the mandate letter for Minister of Democratic Institutions Karina Gould, she receives direction to discontinue electoral reform activities

Changing the electoral system will not be in your mandate.

She is also directed to defend the current electoral system from cyber threats, by working with National Defence, Public Safety, and the Communications Security Establishment (CSE).

UPDATE 2017-06-19: The CSE has released its report on Cyber Threats to the electoral process.  ENDUPDATE

In addition through her, CSE is directed to analyze security risks to Canadian political and electoral activities, and to offer advice to Canadian political parties and Elections Canada on cybersecurity.

In collaboration with the Minister of National Defence and the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, lead the Government of Canada’s efforts to defend the Canadian electoral process from cyber threats.  This should include asking the Communications Security Establishment (CSE) to analyze risks to Canada’s political and electoral activities from hackers, and to release this assessment publicly.  As well, ask CSE to offer advice to Canada’s political parties and Elections Canada on best practices when it comes to cyber security.

(a copy of the mandate letter is also available in Archive.org)

Given the current cyber threat environment, with documented compromises of political party systems and elections-related systems, I consider this new emphasis on electoral process cyber security to be excellent.  Having CSE release its security assessment publicly is also a very important step.

Note that in addition to Canada and the US, the Australian Prime Minister also expressed his concern about foreign actors attacking political parties.

The [Australian] Federal Government is urging Australia’s political parties to steel themselves against potential foreign cyber attacks, as Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull prepares to announce an unprecedented cyber security briefing for political parties to be held in Canberra early next month.

from ABC News – Government urges political parties to ‘keep themselves secure’ ahead of cyber security briefing – January 23, 2017

New Brunswick Electoral Reform Commission meeting dates

It looks like the New Brunswick Commission on Electoral Reform will meet with the public in January 2017 only, as they work to producing a report for March 1, 2017.  Announced meeting dates are:

• Wednesday, Jan. 4
• Friday, Jan. 6
• Monday, Jan. 9 (from 10am to noon)
• Friday, Jan. 13
• Monday, Jan. 16
• Friday, Jan. 20
• Monday, Jan. 23
• Friday, Jan. 27

i.e. Monday and Friday each week in January, with the exception of the first week where the Monday meeting is moved to January 4.  Times and locations have not yet been announced. Unless there’s a media advisory otherwise, the meeting location is Council Chamber, Legislative Assembly (706 Queen Street, Fredericton).

UPDATE 2017-01-07: The main website is NOT listed under Legislative Assembly / Special Committees.  You have to find it under Consultations – http://www2.gnb.ca/content/gnb/en/corporate/public_consultations/ElectoralReform.html

The only channel for meeting updates appears to be Media Advisories.  Note that the media advisories expire from the web page quickly (basically once the event has passed the advisory is gone).  I am unable to find any meeting agendas or list of stakeholders being invited.

The January 9, 2017 meeting will be from 10am to noon according to an advisory.

ENDUPDATE

UPDATE 2017-01-05: Time and location for upcoming meetings Jan 6-16 will be 9:30am to 4pm, in Council Chamber, Legislative Assembly (706 Queen Street, Fredericton).  ENDUPDATE

UPDATE 2017-01-03: January 4, 2017 meeting has been postponed.  ENDUPDATE

I have submitted my briefing about online voting to the commission. The deadline was November 30, 2016 but in a CBC News report they say you can still submit in January.

The commission invited the public to share thoughts and concerns on its website up until Nov. 30, but Passaris said that deadline is one that is “movable.”

“As long as the commission will be holding its public sessions, we would like the public to continue to send in their comments,” he said.

You can submit by email to Consultations.ECO-BCE@gnb.ca

Previously:
November 20, 2016  New Brunswick electoral reform consultation including Internet voting

ERRE Electoral Reform Committee – MP reports, Briefs, Witnesses, Meetings

The ERRE Special Committee on Electoral Reform has a page that has MP reports (“Members Reports”), Briefs submitted by Canadians, a list of Witnesses including direct links to their testimony (click on the microphone icon), and Meetings.
It’s a very useful page, but unfortunately kind of buried unless you know about it.
You can find it at
http://www.parl.gc.ca/Committees/en/ERRE/StudyActivity?studyActivityId=9013025

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Copied from original post on legacy blog http://papervotecanada.blogspot.ca/2016/10/erre-electoral-reform-committee-mp.html

New Brunswick electoral reform consultation including Internet voting

You can submit comments or submit your name to be an expert witness e.g. by email to Consultations.ECO-BCE@gnb.ca
The deadline is November 30, 2016.

The New Brunswick Commission on Electoral Reform consultation page states

The commission has been given the following mandates:

• Assess commitments made by the provincial government in 2014 to contribute to making a more effective Legislature by:
  – eliminating barriers to entering politics for underrepresented groups; and
  – investigating means to improve participation in democracy, such as preferential ballots and online voting.
• Assess other electoral reform matters that have been raised recently, namely:
  – the voting age;
  – political contribution rules; and
  – political spending rules.

To its credit (and unlike the Federal electoral reform consultation) the NB government has issued a discussion paper, which includes two pages covering Internet voting reasonably well.

The discussion paper is called “Strengthening New Brunswick’s Democracy” and is available from the Government of New Brunswick website (GNB.ca) at
http://www.gnb.ca/legis/business/currentsession/58/58-2/LegDoc/Eng/58-2July/SNBD.pdf
The Internet voting section is pages 18-19.

For the French version of the discussion paper, see
Vote par Internet – de la page 20 à la page 21 dans « Renforcer la démocratie au Nouveau-Brunswick » (PDF)

The discussion paper is also available in print bilingual and in PDFs in both official languages, here are the ISBNs
ISBN 978-1- 4605-1033-9 (Print Bilingual)
ISBN 978-1- 4605-1034-6 (PDF English)
ISBN 978-1- 4605-1035-3 (PDF French)

The Commissioners have been announced in a November 9, 2016 press release

The individuals are Carolyn MacKay, Bev Harrison, Gaétane Johnson, Jason Alcorn and Constantine Passaris.

None of the commissioners has a technical (computer science) background.

According to a July 2016 news release

It is expected that hearings will take place in the fall [2016] with a report due by early 2017. The plan is to allow for any changes to be implemented in advance of the 2018 general election.

However the November 9, 2016 press release makes no mention of hearings, and says just

The public has been encouraged to participate in the process by reading the discussion paper Strengthening New Brunswick’s Democracy and submitting comments. The information received will be compiled and analyzed by the commission. Recommendations will be submitted to the clerk of the Executive Council by March 1, 2017.

This posting adapted and expanded from original on legacy blog http://papervotecanada.blogspot.ca/2016/07/new-brunswick-launches-voting.html