The Interim

The Alberta Court of Appeal has ruled unconstitutional sections of the federal Elections Act which restricts some kinds of campaign advertising – and that spells good news for pro-life organizations which want to publicize candidates’ stands on life and family issues.

The Act has prevented third party from spending more than $1, 000 on election advertising, but the Alberta court by a unanimous decision June 5 said it is arbitrary and unfair to prevent interest groups from involving themselves in issues Canadians want to see on the table.

“The legislation impairs far too severely the right to vote and the freedoms of expression and association to be justified as a reasonable limit on these core democratic rights,” wrote Justice Carol Conrad.

To prevent lobby groups from participating in election campaigns “is to thwart the free and democratic process and … is one of the evils from which the Constitution guarantee provides protection,” she added.

The federal government is expected to appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court of Canada.

The court decision was immediately hailed by the National Citizens’ Coalition, which had launched the challenge of the Act. The NCC was involved in the recent B.C. provincial election (where it used radio and TV ads in neighbouring Washington State to skirt the law) and in the Hamilton East by-election campaign where Sheila Copps was returned to office.

“What this election gag law did was to threaten citizens with jail for the peaceful expression of their political beliefs,” said NCC leader David Somerville after the ruling. “That’s the kind of law that is at home in a banana republic under a junta or something, but not in a free, democratic country.”

Reform MP Stephen Harper also welcomed the decision and Campaign Life Coalition president Jim Hughes noted the Elections Act restrictions were “appalling.”

“They’re attempting to deny Canadians the right at election time to bring out the issues which are most important to them. The (political) parties are saying, people are saying ‘Hold on, we want to talk about whatever the heck it is.’”

Hughes said the fact the federal government plans to appeal the Alberta court ruling shows that political parties of whatever stripe seem determined to follow through with restricting public input. “I don’t know how many times this has happened. The governments, whether Tory blue or Liberal red, are hell-bent on removing the right of free speech from grassroots Canadians by saying, ‘We’re going to put a gag law on you and you’re not going to get involved in election campaigns’… They’re not going to be able to stop until they get their way. That, to me is arrogance of the first order.”

But he said CLC didn’t let the Elections Act stop it from questioning candidates on life issues and publicizing the results prior to the Alberta ruling anyway.

“We never stopped advertising during election campaigns and we never left the threat of this stop us from coming up with the election strategy that was most desired at the time. We felt we’d do whatever (we had to), let them arrest us and them argue in court that our rights were being denied.

“The government tends to use taxpayers’ money to push whatever it wants while ordinary citizens have a heck of a time fighting them,” he added. “I don’t think this is the way it’s supposed to be. The government is supposed to represent the views of the people and what’s right. The gag law is wrong.”

Choose Life Canada president Ken Campbell, who has participated in numerous election campaigns as wither a third party or as a candidate, most recently ran for office in the June by-election in Sheila Copps’ Hamilton East riding.

He said after the Alberta ruling that third party advertising during election campaigns is “an appropriate avenue of expression and involvement in public matters.”

“I’m suspicious of politicians who get unduly exercised about third party involvement,” he noted.

Campbell began his election campaign during a 1980 effort to unseat then- Toronto Mayor John Sewell. He and a committee distributed 100,000 flyers and published a two-page as in the Toronto Sun. Since then, ha has been an unsuccessful candidate for office at various levels of government, mainly with the purpose of publishing a Christian-oriented point of view.

“We keep assessing the most effective way of engaging the public with the issues that need to be addressed,” he said. “Our intention is to campaign for the defeat of the Chretien government.”

He said there are economic advantages to running as a candidate over acting as a third party in a campaign. He estimates he received more than $12,000 worth of free publicity in the Hamilton East by-election campaign as a candidate.

“Direct participation has more advantages that any alternative we’ve been able to devise,” he said.