The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that advocacy groups, unions, and corporations have a constitutional right to advertise before elections, striking down an Ontario law that restricted political ad spending for a full year prior to a campaign.
Blacklock's Reporter says in a narrow 5-4 decision, the court found that the law unfairly limited third-party political speech while allowing political parties greater spending freedom.
"Political advertising is an important part of the electoral process," wrote Justice Andromache Karakatsanis for the majority. "Restricting third-party spending while political parties remain largely unrestricted has the potential to overwhelm political discourse."
Ontario's 2017 amendment to the Elections Act had capped third-party political ad spending at $600,000 for the year leading up to an election.
Political parties, by contrast, faced no spending limits for the first six months of the same period and were only restricted to $1,000,000 in the latter half.
The Working Families Coalition, representing teachers' unions and other labor organizations, successfully challenged the law, arguing it violated free expression.
Karakatsanis, a former Ontario deputy attorney general, stated that limiting third-party advertising "is not justified in a free and democratic society" and warned that such restrictions allow political parties to "drown out" other voices.
Dissenting judges, including Chief Justice Richard Wagner, argued that the law did not prevent citizens from expressing their political views.
"When expression is unlimited, well-resourced third parties can dominate political discourse, drown out the voices of their opponents, and prevent other citizens from having the opportunity to speak and be heard," Wagner wrote.
The Supreme Court had previously ruled in 2004 that restrictions on political advertising during election campaigns were justifiable to protect fair elections.
However, this ruling focused on spending limits in the pre-election period, reinforcing that broad restrictions on advocacy advertising cannot be justified under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.