The Supreme Court of Canada will announce today whether it will hear an appeal of a ruling striking down third-party election advertising rules in Ontario.
The law in question imposed tighter limits on the amounts that third parties such as unions and interest groups could spend in the run-up to an election, and the Ontario Court of Appeal found it unconstitutional.
Before 2021, third parties were allowed to spend up to $600,000 on advertising in the six months before an election call, but this year the government extended that limited spending period to one year without increasing the amount.
The Progressive Conservative government argued the expanded restrictions were necessary to protect elections from outside influence. But critics said this amounts to the government trying to silence criticism ahead of the 2022 provincial election.
The law was found unconstitutional on free speech grounds, so the government reinstated the provisions using the derogation clause to forestall constitutional challenges. However, several third parties challenged the reintroduced provisions in another section of the Charter.
The Court of Appeal struck down this new law on the grounds that it violated the voter’s right to meaningful participation in the electoral process, which is not subject to the derogation clause, and gave the government one year to create new Charter-compliant legislation. The government appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2023.
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