Canada

CANADA The Report of the Royal Commission on Electoral Reform and Party Financing is currently being reviewed by the Committee on Election Reform, a House of Commons committee of the Canadian parliament. This committee will be making proposals to the Canadian parliament to amend the Canadian Elections Act. Two aspects of the Royal Commission's recommendations are of particular concern to the press in Canada opinion surveys and limits to third-party expenses. The Royal Commission proposes to place restrictions on advertising by persons other than registered political parties and candidates for electoral office. Specifically, it proposes to limit to 1,000 dollars the amount a third person can spend on advertising during a federal election campaign. This proposal is c1early designed to stifle the views of persons who are not candidates for registered political parties and is an attack on freedom of speech. The Royal Commission also propases to place restrictions on the publication of opinion polls during federal elections by limiting the times at which they can be published. It proposes to prohibit the publication of opinion polls the day before an election or until after the polls close on election day. In addition, the Royal Commission proposes that publications that publish polls be compelled to also publish a long list of technical details about such polls. The space requirements for this could make publication of certain polls prohibitively expensive and confusing. The press in Canada views these restrictions and conditions as an attempt to interfere with the free flow of information. In late June, the Ontario Newspaper Guild began a strike against the Toronto Star. During the first few days, the government of Ontario province announced that it was withdrawing all of its advertising from the Star for the duration of the dispute, in which the Star continued publishing, saying it did not want to confer a benefit on the newspaper during a labor dispute because that would be taking sides. The Toronto City Council also stopped buying advertising space in the newspaper during the strike. The IAPA sent protests to the both the provincial government and the city council. Neither reversed its position, but the protests were seen as important in that both governments are concerned about how the international community views the investment climate in the province of Ontario - and therefore did not like the kind of publicity that an IAPA protest brings with it.