[CivicAccess-discuss] Scassa review of the OGP IRM report blogpost

[Tracey P. Lauriault]

I think e-petititions are good, but we must temper that with real
consultations and sometimes targeted consultations with the public and
specialist or stakeholder communities.

Direct democracy of this nature can be problematic on real questions, one
form of direct democracy we have all recently witnessed is a ballot
question on same sex marriage, whereby a majority votes on a minority
right.  Imagine if that was done on the topic of allowing blacks to the
lunch counter in 1950 US.  This form of direct democracy is also
problematic in Switzerland when it comes to citizenship decisions, the
whole life of the applicant is on display in a community and the community
votes on whether or not they are entitled to citizenship.  Certain groups
are persistently being refused irrespective of how long they have lived in
a community and the good they have provided.  Does a petition on anti
choice mean we get to reopen debate?

Also, petitions like these provide clues to a mood and a sentiment but the
number or respondents can be heavily weighted to those who heard about the
petition, again, if it is not discussed broadly and if the questions are
formulated in such a way as to mask the nuances of an issue (the fine
print), then we are no better off. Then there is the technical issue of
ensuring one response per person, location specific responses, etc.

I think these are a very positive steps forward, but we should not have
this as the default means to make decisions in government, our politics are
more nuanced than a survey, and at times, a room full of experts from all
sectors actively engaged in a well moderated and critical discussion about
an issues might be a better approach and better solutions than those in a
petition.  This is more expensive, more work, and harder to do, but I think
we are worth it.

I love the http://openparliament.ca/votes/41-2/43/ results! Especially
since the tories, if they used petitions to mobilize the religious right,
who are way more organized than atheists for example, could have all kinds
of nefarious debates in the House, but they predominantly voted no!
Amazing.

Cheers
t


On Thu, Feb 6, 2014 at 4:07 AM, James McKinney <james at opennorth.ca> wrote:

> Awesome. The vote on OpenParliament.ca:
> http://openparliament.ca/votes/41-2/43/
>
>
> On 2014-02-05, at 8:17 PM, David Akin wrote:
>
> First point Alex notes in his post was about e-petitions. Good news:
> Canada is going to do it.
>
>
> Last week, MP Kennedy Stewart's motion on e-petitions passed. Kennedy, an
> NDP (opposition) MP was pretty pleased:
>
> Kennedy's page on his e-petition motion:
> http://kennedystewart.ndp.ca/e-petitions
>
> .. his Web site:
> http://betterpetitions.ca/
>
> .. why this is a big deal:
>
> http://newdemocracy.craigscott.ndp.ca/topics/6956/ideas-for-21st-century-use-of-e-petitions
>
> And here's the vote in the House of Commons -- it passed! -- but it was
> close:
>
> http://www.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?Pub=hansard&Language=E&Mode=1&Parl=41&Ses=2&DocId=6395387&File=0
>
>
> On Feb 5, 2014, at 7:27 PM, James McKinney <james at opennorth.ca> wrote:
>
> Alex Howard, from Canada's advisory panel on open government, shares his
> recommendations to the government as a panelist in this blog post:
> http://e-pluribusunum.com/2014/02/05/canada-public-consultation-open-government-national-action-plan/
>
>
>
> On 2014-02-03, at 2:23 PM, Tracey P. Lauriault wrote:
>
>
> http://www.teresascassa.ca/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=151:canada%E2%80%99s-progress-on-open-government-ogp-report-open-for-comments&Itemid=81
> .
>
> --
> Tracey P. Lauriault
> http://traceyplauriault.wordpress.com/2013/07/23/moving-to-ireland/
> https://gcrc.carleton.ca/confluence/display/GCRCWEB/Lauriault
> http://datalibre.ca/
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-- 
Tracey P. Lauriault
http://traceyplauriault.wordpress.com/2013/07/23/moving-to-ireland/
https://gcrc.carleton.ca/confluence/display/GCRCWEB/Lauriault
http://datalibre.ca/
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