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329. No person shall transmit the result or purported result of the vote in an electoral district to the public in another electoral district before the close of all of the polling stations in that other electoral district. [3] In the decision of R. v. Bryan, [2007] 1 S.C.R. 527, [2007] S.C.J. No. 12, 2007 SCC 12, the Supreme Court of Canada held that s. 329 of the Canada Elections Act was a breach of the right of freedom of expression but that this infringement is justified under s. 1 of the Charter. The court held that s. 329 by virtue of its objective of ensuring informational equality among voters is a reasonable limit on s. 2(b) of the Charter. The court concluded that the government was able to demonstrate that the s. 329 ban meets the proportionality test. In reaching this conclusion, it considered affidavit evidence before it which included a government report entitled Reforming Electoral Democracy: Final Report (Ottawa: Royal Commission on Electoral Reform and Party Financing, 1991), the Report of the Royal Commission on Electoral Reform and Party Financing (the "Lortie Report"), a Decima Research/Carleton University Poll concerning the electoral system in Canada and the evidence of Dr. Robert MacDermid, a professor of political science at York University. [4] In the matter before me, counsel for the applicants was retained during the week following the election call and has [page682] amassed certain evidence for the application. He contacted the respondent with a draft notice of application containing the argument and the evidence which the applicants intend to rely upon at a hearing. That evidence includes five affidavits as follows: (1) an 18-page affidavit by the general manager and editor-inchief of the English language services of CBC. She outlined changes in the culture of news broadcasting over the last five years, commented on the efforts that must be 2011 ONSC 2281 (CanLII) applicant Canadian Broadcasting Corporation ("CBC") is Canada's national public broadcaster and the applicant Bell Media Inc. owns CTV, Canada's largest national private-television broadcaster. These applicants challenge the constitutional validity of the following provision:

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Canadian Broadcasting Corp. v. Canada

Judgment

Question Presented: Whether the broadcasting restricted and alleged Charter violations therein may be heard on an expedited review basis.

Alleged Acts: In March of 2011 the Parliament was dissolved and elections were called for May. The plaintiff in this case is the largest private television broadcasters. The plaintiff filed suit alleging that Section 329 of the Canada Elections Act, which prohibits the transmission of election results to another district before the close all polling stations in the second district, violates the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Procedural history: The plaintiffs requested an expedited hearing and court denied stating that expedited nature of the case would require a judge to make an immediate decision on a complex case and would not be in the public interest.

Summary: The plaintiffs argue that the law was set forth far before the age of modern social media when the sole method of communicating election results was traditional broadcast media. The plaintiffs further assert that Canada has three different time zones, but does not have staggered voting times. Thus, in the era of Facebook and Twitter this restriction is virtually impossible. The defendants do not argue the merit of the argument but that application was brought too close to the impending election date.

Conclusion: The court determined that issues pertaining to the Charter are of significant importance to Canadian society and must be given due care and consideration. The application itself contained significant data and social science, which the court and respondent would need to evaluate in order to properly address. Thus, the court ultimately refused the request for an expedited hearing.

Legal Issue(s)

Social Media
Vote Verification and Transmission

Region: Americas

Country: Canada

Language of Decision

English

Court: Supreme Court

Election Type: General

Date of decision: Apr 11, 2011

Geolocation

Latitude: 43.66785119051093

Longitude: -79.3679844822952

: Geolocation

Primary Documents

Canadian Broadcasting Corp. v. Canada.pdf
English
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Election Judgments - IFES

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Canadian Broadcasting Corp. v. Canada

Primary Documents

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