• Section 25 forces Manitobans to comply with onerous rules or face fines up to $50,000
  
• Citizens and Citizen Groups limited to spending only $5,000 during election campaign while political parties are capped at $1 million
  
• CTF obtained legal opinion on "gag law" provisions - found to be a violation of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms
  
• Similar laws have been struck down in other jurisdictions in Canada

Letter to Premier Doer

WINNIPEG: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) wrote to Premier Gary Doer today urging him to repeal Section 25 of the Election Finance Act. Amendments to the act were passed in the Legislature in August of 2000 which puts a limit on citizens and citizen groups spending during an election campaign. When Bill 4 was introduced in the Legislature, it was claimed that these changes would "have reasonable limits on third-party activity during an election campaign and will continue to build on Manitoba's integrity on a level playing field during election campaigns."

In the letter, Provincial Director Adrienne Batra writes: The unfortunate reality is that these amendments will have an effect that is the opposite of their intent. Section 25 of the Act, which deals with citizens and citizen groups, has not been proclaimed but could come into force on a specified date of the government's choosing. As there is a provincial election looming, the CTF fears that the government will proclaim this portion of the Act into force just prior to the election, thereby forcing citizens of Manitoba to comply with a new set of onerous rules or face a significant fine up to $50,000.

Under the legislation citizens and citizen groups will be limited to spend only $5,000 on election advertising, which is a paltry amount compared to the $1 million political parties can spend during a campaign. These limits obstruct freedom of speech and give political parties a monopoly on ideas and debates during an election. This is Canada Mr. Premier, not Communist China.

In recent years these laws have been struck down in other jurisdictions. In 1998, in Thomson Newspapers v. Canada (Attorney General), the Supreme Court of Canada struck down sections of the Canada Elections Act prohibiting the broadcasting, publication or dissemination of opinion survey results in the final three days of a federal election campaign. In February of 2000, the B.C. Supreme Court struck down the provincial law imposing citizens and citizen groups spending limits during B.C. provincial elections. Fast-forward to June of 2001: Harper v. Canada (Attorney General). After reviewing all of the evidence, Alberta Court of Queen's Bench Justice Cairns ruled that there was "no evidentiary foundation upon which to conclude that election fairness is adversely affected by third party advertising during an election period."