Court denies May’s request for expedited review of CRTC regs

Green party Leader Elizabeth May will not participate in the televised leaders’ debates after the federal court rejected her request for an expedited hearing to review a CRTC broadcasting regulation. Federal Court of Appeal Justice Marc Nadon declined a request to hear May’s application for judicial review in advance of the April 12 televised debate. That means the court won’t hear her case during the 2011 election campaign. May’s lawyer, Peter Rosenthal, a partner with Roach, Schwartz and Associates in Toronto, said he doesn’t accept the broadcasting consortium’s reason for excluding May on the grounds that her party doesn’t have any seats in the House of Commons. A consortium made up of CBC/Radio-Canada, CTV, Global and TVA currently determines the debate’s participants. “The consortium does what it wants to,” Rosenthal told CTV News following the court decision. “In my view, the CRTC is in error in not regulating them in this respect and that’s what we tried to get the court of appeal to require of the CRTC.” May’s application sought to force the CRTC to issue explicit guidelines for the leaders’ debates that allow for the participation of all leaders of federal parties who received at least two per cent of the vote nationally in the previous election. Parties that reach the two per cent threshold are eligible for a $2-per-vote federal subsidy. The Green party received 6.8 per cent of the vote in the 2008 election. That year, the consortium initially denied May's participation in the debate but changed its decision after a public outcry. At the time, the Green party held one seat in the House after Independent MP Blair Wilson joined the party, but it currently doesn’t have any seats. Combined, all other federal parties not included in the debate received less than one per cent of the 2008 vote. Rosenthal told CTV that a line might have to be drawn to determine who participates in the debate, but he said the Greens should not be grouped with fringe parties. “The Greens are not a fringe party and the consortium treating them as if they are a fringe party is in my view an affront to democracy and in my view something the CRTC should not permit,” he said. The consortium argued before the court that the matter was too complex to be heard in such a short period of time. May told CTV in an interview Tuesday that she was surprised the broadcasters excluded her after her party’s vote increased in 2008, saying the consortium operates “on an ad hoc basis.” “This year, without giving us any reasons except what they describe as a programming decision, they decided to exclude the voice of someone whose party received nearly one million votes in 2008,” she said. “This is manifestly anti-democratic and they don’t have any rules, so they can’t keep making up new ones.” Rosenthal said the request for an expedited hearing is the final legal attempt to enter the debates during the 2011 election but that he hopes public pressure will continue and that the consortium will change its position. The consortium issued a statement recognizing the court’s decision, stating that “the organization of the Leaders Debate 2011 is going ahead as planned.” Former TV producer Howard Bernstein, who has worked for the CBC, CTV and Global, and who has served as a delegate in previous debate discussions between broadcasters, wrote on his blog Tuesday that decisions about the debate rules should not be established by broadcasters or party leaders. “An independent group should be charged with creating the rules free from political interference,” he wrote. “The rules should be set long before an election is called.” news@thewirereport.ca

Court denies May’s request for expedited review of CRTC regs

Broadcast | April 5, 2011

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