Top court rejects appeal to suspend election gag law
Last Updated: Friday, January 13, 2006 | 4:30 PM ET
CBC News
The election gag law, in effect for the Jan. 23 vote, bans the transmission of election results to areas of the country where polls remain open. The media wanted the ban lifted so results could be published online and broadcast nationwide as soon as they become available.
In a motion filed with the Supreme Court, various media outlets wrote that any impact on other voters would be minimal and should "not justify infringing the expression rights of literally several millions of Canadians."
B.C. resident Paul Bryan deliberately broke the election gag law during the 2000 federal election.
He posted results from Atlantic Canada on his website before polls closed in B.C. He was convicted in provincial court and fined $1,000.
The conviction was overturned in 2003 by the B.C. Supreme Court, which struck down the gag law section of the Canada Elections Act.
That allowed media companies in the 2004 election to tell voters in Western Canada what the results were further east while polling stations in B.C. were still open.
In May of this year, the B.C. Court of Appeal reversed the lower court's decision and upheld the ban, saying it promotes fairness and ensures all voters receive equal treatment on election day.
Lawyers for the media organizations had asked the Supreme Court to suspend the law until they ruled on Bryan's appeal.
