I am the only person in Canada who realizes it, but when Prime Minister Stephen Harper signed off on his recently unveiled Fair Elections Act, he broke a solemn pledge.
While the Fair Elections Act contains many measures — it regulates robocalls, it cracks down on election fraud, it tightens up auditing rules for political spending — what it doesn’t do is restore freedom of expression to all Canadians by scrapping what’s known as the “election gag law.”
In case you haven’t heard of it, this law, which was enacted in 2000, imposes severe legal restrictions on how much money citizens or independent organizations can spend on “election advertising.”
To put it another way, the gag law essentially makes it a crime for non-politicians to effectively and freely promote their ideas during federal elections.
It’s also a law Harper promised to repeal. In fact, he signed a Free Speech Protection Pledge, that declared:
“I Stephen Harper, pledge if elected Prime Minister to protect the democratic freedom of all Canadians by immediately repealing those sections of the Canada Elections Act (commonly known as the election gag law) which deny Canadians the opportunity to freely and effectively participate in the democratic process.”
Mind you, he signed this pledge 10 years ago when he was running for the leadership of the Conservative Party, so perhaps he’s forgotten it.
But I remember because I’m the guy who presented him with the pledge. At the time, I was working for the National Citizens Coalition, an organization that had been fighting election gag laws in the courts for decades.
I knew Harper would sign this pledge because he was my former boss; he was once the NCC’s president.
And as NCC president, Harper vehemently opposed election gag laws, which he viewed as a serious infringement on the core democratic right of free election speech.
He even launched a constitutional court challenge to overturn the gag law.
Unfortunately, however, the Supreme Court of Canada, in what I regard as a terrible ruling for democracy, upheld the government’s right to restrict free expression.
Yet, even though Harper lost in the courts, as prime minister he could still scrap the law.
He could, but he hasn’t.
Harper has been prime minister for eight years and still the gag law is in place. And now it seems it will remain in place forever. His Fair Elections Act was probably the last opportunity to kill it, meaning, sadly for those of us who cherish individual liberty, free election speech in Canada is officially dead.
Does Harper’s failure to keep his promise on the gag law disappoint me? Absolutely, but it doesn’t surprise me.
Power has a way of eroding principles. And, like prime ministers before him, Harper realizes that, pragmatically speaking, having a gag law on the books works to his political self-interest.
After all, thanks to the gag law, labour unions and environmentalists and other assorted-left-leaning organizations, who might otherwise vociferously oppose Harper’s policies in the next federal election, will be effectively silenced and sidelined.
The only real hope left for free speech is if the conservative movement itself pushes Harper to kill the gag law.
Alas, that’s unlikely to happen.
Many conservatives, in fact, now actually support gag laws. Indeed, leading conservative academic Tom Flanagan supports gag laws, as does Ontario Progressive Conservative Party leader Tim Hudak. In other words, they believe in free markets, but oppose a free marketplace of ideas.
To me that’s a contradiction, I believe you can’t defend conservative ideals, while abandoning conservative principles.
Stephen Harper once believed that too.
At least he did when he signed that anti-gag law pledge.
Gerry Nicholls is a communications consultant and was formerly vice president of the National Citizens Coalition.
Original Article
Source: ottawacitizen.com/
Author: GERRY NICHOLLS
While the Fair Elections Act contains many measures — it regulates robocalls, it cracks down on election fraud, it tightens up auditing rules for political spending — what it doesn’t do is restore freedom of expression to all Canadians by scrapping what’s known as the “election gag law.”
In case you haven’t heard of it, this law, which was enacted in 2000, imposes severe legal restrictions on how much money citizens or independent organizations can spend on “election advertising.”
To put it another way, the gag law essentially makes it a crime for non-politicians to effectively and freely promote their ideas during federal elections.
It’s also a law Harper promised to repeal. In fact, he signed a Free Speech Protection Pledge, that declared:
“I Stephen Harper, pledge if elected Prime Minister to protect the democratic freedom of all Canadians by immediately repealing those sections of the Canada Elections Act (commonly known as the election gag law) which deny Canadians the opportunity to freely and effectively participate in the democratic process.”
Mind you, he signed this pledge 10 years ago when he was running for the leadership of the Conservative Party, so perhaps he’s forgotten it.
But I remember because I’m the guy who presented him with the pledge. At the time, I was working for the National Citizens Coalition, an organization that had been fighting election gag laws in the courts for decades.
I knew Harper would sign this pledge because he was my former boss; he was once the NCC’s president.
And as NCC president, Harper vehemently opposed election gag laws, which he viewed as a serious infringement on the core democratic right of free election speech.
He even launched a constitutional court challenge to overturn the gag law.
Unfortunately, however, the Supreme Court of Canada, in what I regard as a terrible ruling for democracy, upheld the government’s right to restrict free expression.
Yet, even though Harper lost in the courts, as prime minister he could still scrap the law.
He could, but he hasn’t.
Harper has been prime minister for eight years and still the gag law is in place. And now it seems it will remain in place forever. His Fair Elections Act was probably the last opportunity to kill it, meaning, sadly for those of us who cherish individual liberty, free election speech in Canada is officially dead.
Does Harper’s failure to keep his promise on the gag law disappoint me? Absolutely, but it doesn’t surprise me.
Power has a way of eroding principles. And, like prime ministers before him, Harper realizes that, pragmatically speaking, having a gag law on the books works to his political self-interest.
After all, thanks to the gag law, labour unions and environmentalists and other assorted-left-leaning organizations, who might otherwise vociferously oppose Harper’s policies in the next federal election, will be effectively silenced and sidelined.
The only real hope left for free speech is if the conservative movement itself pushes Harper to kill the gag law.
Alas, that’s unlikely to happen.
Many conservatives, in fact, now actually support gag laws. Indeed, leading conservative academic Tom Flanagan supports gag laws, as does Ontario Progressive Conservative Party leader Tim Hudak. In other words, they believe in free markets, but oppose a free marketplace of ideas.
To me that’s a contradiction, I believe you can’t defend conservative ideals, while abandoning conservative principles.
Stephen Harper once believed that too.
At least he did when he signed that anti-gag law pledge.
Gerry Nicholls is a communications consultant and was formerly vice president of the National Citizens Coalition.
Original Article
Source: ottawacitizen.com/
Author: GERRY NICHOLLS
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