This is the heart of the issue, I think. Proponents of existing regulations on "third party" interventions in election campaigns will say "you can do anything provided you register"; but many "third parties" don't want to go through burdensome registration & intrusive reporting.
Are they just being lazy & capricious? I don't think so. The $500 threshold is exceedingly low. In New Zealand, the threshold for registration is $13,200 (that's about C$11,000), and detailed reporting requirements kick in at $100,000.
The Canada Elections Act imposes a real and quite unnecessary burden on people who want to incur fairly modest expenses to communicate their views on matters of public interest at the precise time when the public is most interested: during election campaigns.
For more on the underlying issues, see my @McGill_LJ paper: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cf…. The Canada Elections Act has been changed since it was published, but the philosophy underpinning the relevant provisions is still the same.
@McGill_LJ And see also this post on an Australian case that dealt with the issue of "third parties" rather better than the #SCC has so far: doubleaspect.blog/2019/01/30/aus… (though this isn't exactly the same issue as the one at hand).
@McGill_LJ Anyway, I will try to have post later in the week. Dixi, for now.
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