B.C.’s civil liberties group to survey election-law issues

The B.C. Civil Liberties Association wants to hear from organizations across Canada about how federal elections laws affected their freedom of expression during the recent federal election.

The association said Wednesday it has heard complaints from groups about problems with the third party advertiser reporting rules.

The association is “concerned about a chill on organizations” with relevant expertise who represent people deeply affected by the election’s key issues, said acting executive director Maggie Knight, in a statement early Wednesday.

“We think the debate suffers when these organizations self-censor out of fear.”

So the association has launched a survey for organizations to fill out online regarding freedom of expression concerns during the federal election.

The survey is available at bccla. org/election-chill

The association says the impact may be particularly severe on small civil society organizations with few staff who lack resources to seek legal advice.

Knight says some of the key issues are climate change, immigration, tax policy, and pharmacare.

Early in the campaign, Elections Canada warned that third-party advertising discussing climate change could be seen as partisan, a decision that left some environment groups feeling muzzled.

Green Leader Elizabeth May called it ridiculous. NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said it’s not partisan to discuss the single greatest threat faced by humanity.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said it stifled free speech if environmental groups can’t produce ads that describe global warming as a real crisis borne of human behaviour.

The survey will be available for one month.

The Canada Elections Act restricts any third-party advertising that either mentions a party or candidate by name, or promotes or disputes an issue or position taken by a party or candidate.

Once the costs of such ads hit $500, the third party must register with Elections Canada, produce records and financial reports and limit the amount of advertising it undertakes.