The Georgia Straight, Vancouver's only independent newspaper says the provincial government is trying to shut it down.

It has been hit with a $1 million tax bill because the province has decided it isn't a newspaper and therefore exempt from paying provincial sales tax of its printing costs. The provincial government says it owes four years of back taxes.

Don McLeod, the publisher of The Georgia Straight says this is the biggest threat his paper has faced in its 36-year lifespan. It is also the strangest. "What's happening to us is not just a bizarre misuse of power, it's a wacko misuse of power."

The Georgia Straight is a well known an anti-establishment paper which has been extremely critical of Premier Gordon Campbell and his policies. Editor Beverly Sinclair says she suspects political interference is behind the push for the back taxes. But she admits she doesn't have any proof.

"I don't have any documents at this point," she says. "The government ... (is) not going to come out and say 'Let's go get these guys,'" said Sinclair.

The dispute centres upon the editorial content in the paper.

Dan McLeod

There are pages of entertainment listings. The government says those are advertisements, even though they're free, and a newspaper editor compiles them. As a result, The Georgia Straight has less than the 25 per cent editorial content required to define it as a newspaper under the province's tax act.

McLeod says the ruling can't be allowed to stand and he will appeal. He predicts the minister responsible will turn down the appeal, so he's asking for the it to be sent to the courts "immediately."

There is precedent for the case.

In the mid-1990s the B.C. Supreme Court ruled television listings in a newspaper are editorial content. The Georgia Straight staff says if that's the case, why aren't movies, dance and community events treated the same.

The minister responsible has so far declined to discuss the case. He says this is an individual case and he can't comment on the details.