Should people convicted of domestic violence be banned from running for MLA?

Convicted domestic violence perpetrators should be banned from running for MLA in the Northwest Territories for five years after their conviction, according to a new proposal from Yellowknife's chapter of YWCA, an international advocacy organization that provides housing and other services for women.

The proposal was suggested during public consultations held in late 2016 as part of a review of conduct guidelines that apply to MLAs in the territory. A full report on the consultation is expected to be tabled and discussed at the next sitting of the legislative assembly, which begins Jan. 31. 

The proposal aims to target domestic violence here in the Northwest Territories, which has the country's second highest rate of reported domestic violence toward women after Nunavut, according to a 2012 Statistics Canada report.

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"The government should be setting limits because the government represents the people," said Caroline Wawzonek, a lawyer and representative of the YWCA who participated in recent public consultations about MLA conduct guidelines.

"To make that something where you say, no you have to sit out of an election if you are convicted of an offence like that, is a very strong statement about how our society feels about this kind of activity."

Current rules in the territory's Elections and Plebiscites Act state that a person who is convicted of a major election offence — like defaming another candidate or forcing another candidate to withdraw their candidacy — is disqualified from being elected to the Legislative Assembly for five years immediately following the conviction. People who are currently imprisoned cannot be elected.

"We take the five years that are already there for major elections offences and just want to extend that five years to apply to domestic violence offences," said Wawzonek.

Or let the voters decide?

David Wasylciw disagrees.

Wasylciw, who ran for MLA for Frame Lake during the 2015 N.W.T. election and runs the open data website OpenNWT, says that it should be up to the voters to decide who gets elected.

"Fundamentally, it comes down to the voters get to decide who their government is. It's not about the government setting rules necessarily on who can even run," said Wasylciw.

"Just because you run for office doesn't mean you're going to be an MLA or an MP or anything else in Canada. It simply means that you're running and you have the chance."

Wasylciw​ said that the ability to vote and the ability to run as a candidate go hand in hand, according to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

"Every citizen of Canada has the right to vote in an election of members of the House of Commons or of a legislative assembly and to be qualified for membership therein," it says in section 3 of the Charter.

Just because you run for office, doesn't mean you're going to be an MLA.- David Wasylciw

"The actual right to vote and to run has always been protected by the charter. That's why federal prisoners are allowed to vote," he said, warning not to limit participation and democracy.

But Wawzonek says there's always a reasonable limitation on Charter rights.

"Every single right in the constitution is subject to reasonable limits," said Wawzonek.

She said that Indigenous women in Canada face severe violence and murder rates compared to non-Indigenous women.

"These numbers are a scourge," said Wawzonek. "So if we're creating something that's targeted, limited, and specific, why would we not do this?"

Debate re-ignited after Deh Cho MLA's re-election

This isn't the first time a women's advocacy group is calling for zero tolerance on domestic violence in the territory's Legislative Assembly.

In 1994, following a push from groups that included the Status of Women Council of the NWT, the assembly introduced a motion that created a "zero tolerance policy" for domestic violence. In 1995, the pledge received additional teeth when a law was enacted stating that MLAs could not continue to serve if convicted of an offence involving violence or sexual exploitation of a child.

However, the law was repealed over a decade later, following advice from lawyers about the strength and wording of the law after MLA Henry Zoe was convicted of resisting arrest.

Instead, there's a provision which forces current members out of the assembly only if they're sentenced to jail for any crime. However, this doesn't apply to convicted candidates seeking election.

Most recently, the debate was re-ignited when Deh Cho MLA Michael Nadli was convicted of assaulting his wife in 2015, serving eight days of a 45-day jail sentence. Nadli received early release, leaving jail just in time to fill out his election forms, ran in the election, and was re-elected.

Nadli voluntarily completed A New Day's domestic violence counselling program after being released.

• Healing program made a difference for MLA jailed for spousal assault
• BLOG | Deh Cho voters react to Michael Nadli's re-election

"As a man, it's very hard; generally men don't ask for help, and they basically do it themselves. But in this instance, you would have to reach out. It was some difficulty. But I needed help," Nadli told CBC News back in November.