I find this really disturbing.

a reply to: ketsuko

Hi Kets.
Mostly agree with your defense of free-speech.
It's not something within our fabric, as much as it is for our American friends.
Not that we don't agree with it, but it's more like it's just a given, in a way.

Just disappointing that we have agenda-pushers, dressing-up as righteous defenders of, whatever.

So: am not sure about this whole thing.
Don't like the actions Elections-Canada, anymore than the antics of Ezra Levant.
Sure: he can express himself.
But piggy-backing off of this bureaucratic BS, to self-promote ?
Sorta tastes like a crap sandwich, with crap bread, and extra crap sauce.

Am not interested in a homogeneous society, just a less ego-based one.

originally posted by: Atsbhct
a reply to: loam

What does this have to do with Canada being a democracy? Ezra Levant gets to vote like everyone else.

Voting is just part of what we like to call Democracy. Usually there are a certain set of rights also involved. I'm sure you've heard of some of them.

That you can't seem to see the issue with a government investigating an author for his book critical of said government, is kinda disturbing.

When you can't advertise a product simply because it's close to an election is pretty strange IMO.

It's hard to defend the rights of people you disagree with, I get that. But if you don't do that, don't expect much help when it's your turn in front of government investigators. You shouldn't have had that anti-government thought, I guess. You had it coming.

Not a good look for my Neighbor to the South.

a reply to: pavil

But his rights haven’t been violated in the slightest. That’s the the thing. He fundraised money to make election signs that advertised his book, that has Justin Trudeau’s face on it, and put them (with permission, I’m sure] with other election signs on peoples property.

It’s not that any public official cares that he doesn’t like the Liberal party, or is exposing them, you just can’t make election propaganda that confuses the public. And you can’t use more than $500.00 of fundraised money towards what would be deemed a political campaign during the election period without registering as a political party.

The issue is that he was confusing people at election time and that’s it.

I don’t personally agree with him, but I also don’t think he should be censored, and he isn’t being censored. He isn’t being questioned for any reason other than making what Elections Canada deemed as elections materials.

My issue with him lies solely in the spin. No one is persecuting him.

This thing is hilarious ... someone filed a complaint about signs being used during election period and 2 retired agents now working a low-key job ask some questions about it ... no more. This guy is just making a story out of it. What the 2 agents want is the author to say his signs were for the promotion of his book so they can close the case. What they did not see coming was the author turning this into advertisment.

Nothing there from my point of view. I've seen in many questionnings and this is going nowhere.

originally posted by: Atsbhct
a reply to: Blaine91555

But the thing about this is... is no one is censoring this man. He wrote a best selling book. Tons of people support him. He's a regular guest on political talk shows, and writes pieces for major newspapers.

He's just spinning this to make it look like he's being punished for talking about Trudeau. Half of the country doesn't like Trudeau, no one is being punished for that.

Elections Canada has an issue with him because he fundraised more than $500.00 during an election period to put up materials that made it seem that he fronted a political party, which he doesn't.

So theyre wondering why he didnt register as a political party if he wanted to participate in electoral advertising. Electoral advertising is protected, just the same as it is in the US, because citizens have the right to clearly see who is running in an election.

Would most Canadians have been confused by the signs? No, I don't think so, but it still goes against the elections act, and Ezra Levant isn't stupid, so I feel he probably knew that.

All of that material has "Buy the Book" on it?

a reply to: Blaine91555

It does.

a reply to: Atsbhct

I'm sure you see why this would be a bit scary for someone from the US? Free speech means free speech. It's the foundation of a free society and anything that denies speech of any kind is a roadway to autocracy.

We're seeing a very scary thing here with an attempted partisan impeachment. Even people who hate Trump should wake up to the consequences of that. Next time it will be Republicans trying to do it, now the precedent is set.

Scary stuff to me.

a reply to: Blaine91555

But the thing here in Canada, is that people were confused by the signage. We take election meddling pretty seriously. If he made the signs at any other time, or advertised in any other way, nothing would have came from it.

a reply to: Atsbhct

Is it that no negative signage about candidates is allowed? If it is, that is censoring political speech.

a reply to: Blaine91555

It wasn't negative, people thought it was another political party.

The point is, he isn't in trouble. He's just blowing this up to get sympathy attention for being "censored", which he has never been.

Nothing would have happened if citizens didn't complain.