Stop the Cheaters!

We just sued Elections Alberta.

On Thursday, September 10, the Court of King's Bench in Calgary stamped our application: Rebel News Network Ltd. v. Election Commissioner of Alberta and Chief Electoral Officer of Alberta, court file 2601-16399. A judge will hear it in Emergency Chambers this Monday, September 14, at 2:00 p.m. at the Calgary Courts Centre.

You can read the whole thing right here. We want you to see it for yourself.

Why we're in court

On July 24, our lawyer Chad Williamson filed a formal complaint with Elections Alberta about Thomas Lukaszuk's "Forever Canadian" group — the "remain" campaign on Question 10 in the October 19 referendum. A five-page demand letter, a ten-page legal complaint and 226 pages of evidence. 241 pages in all. (The original complaint is linked at the bottom of this page.)

Forever Canadian registered with Elections Alberta on June 8 as a referendum third party advertiser. Once you register, the rules are simple: you file a contribution report every week. Every donation, every donor. If someone gives you goods or services instead of money — a bus, an office, a stage, a truckload of lawn signs — you report that too, at fair market value.

Since the campaign began, Forever Canadian has run a "Unity Bus" tour across the province. It has campaign offices in Edmonton and Calgary. It has handed out thousands of "CHOOSE UNITY" lawn signs. It has publicly solicited donations from "anyone in Canada," which our complaint says the rules don't allow. And it has announced a free Jann Arden concert in downtown Calgary on September 20 — 29 days before the vote.

According to Elections Alberta's own public register, Forever Canadian's contributions total $0.00. Every week since June.

Compare that to everyone else on the same register, as of September 3. Let Alberta Decide: $484,988.95. Alberta's Voice: $152,421.06. Pathway to Independence: $123,247.30. Vote to Stay, a federalist group: $97,791.29. Our own Alberta's Choice: $35,937.95, to the penny.

Other groups on the "remain" side report. Every independence group reports. One group, running the biggest campaign in the province, reports nothing.

The letter nobody is allowed to see

On July 10, Mr. Lukaszuk told the Globe and Mail that Elections Alberta had written him a letter saying Forever Canadian doesn't have to report contributions, because it "isn't promoting a position in the referendum." He wouldn't share the letter. Elections Alberta wouldn't comment.

Not promoting a position? His lawn signs say CHOOSE UNITY. Elections Alberta's own Interpretation Bulletin No. 9, issued July 8, lists "choose" as language that may suggest voting in a referendum. Their word, on his sign. And this is the man who told the BBC that "loss is not an option."

We don't know whether that letter exists, and we're not going to make something up. But if a public regulator quietly exempted one side of a referendum from the rules everyone else follows, Albertans have a right to read it. So our application asks the court to order Elections Alberta to produce its file — including any such letter — or to confirm in writing that no such letter exists.

Seven weeks of silence

Elections Alberta acknowledged our complaint on July 28. It assigned a file number, 2026-0280, and said "a representative may contact you in the future." That was more than six weeks ago. Nothing since.

Our lawyer's letter gave Elections Alberta until September 1 to decide: open an investigation, or refuse and tell us why. The law requires one or the other. September 1 came and went. Silence.

Every week that passes is another week of $0.00 reports. And after October 19, none of it can be fixed. That's why we asked the court for an emergency hearing.

What we're asking the court to do

Let's be precise, because a judge will read this page too. We are not asking the court to punish Forever Canadian. We're not asking it to decide whether Forever Canadian broke the law. Forever Canadian isn't even a party to the case.

We're asking for an order lawyers call mandamus: a court order that makes a public official do the job the law gives them. Specifically:

1. Order Elections Alberta to decide our complaint — investigate, or refuse and say why — within seven days, and in any event before October 19.

2. Declare that Elections Alberta had a legal duty to decide within a reasonable time, and hasn't.

3. Produce the file on our complaint, including any advice Elections Alberta gave Forever Canadian about whether it has to report.

Decide. That's all. If Elections Alberta investigates and finds nothing, fine — say so. Just don't run out the clock until the vote is over and it doesn't matter anymore.

Monday's appearance is to set an urgent timetable so the case is heard before the referendum. And frankly, we'd rather not be in court at all. As Chad told Elections Alberta in his letter, if the Commissioner simply decides the complaint before Monday, most of this lawsuit becomes unnecessary. That is still our preferred outcome.

The evidence

Two sworn affidavits were filed with the application.

Rebel News' Sheila Gunn Reid, the primary contact for Alberta's Choice, swore a 363-page affidavit: every photograph of the bus and the signs, the Globe and Mail story, the concert announcement, Elections Alberta's own guide, bulletin and register, the complaint, the demand letter and the acknowledgment. All under oath. Sheila was in Lethbridge on July 18, when Alberta's Choice and Forever Canadian were in the same parking lot handing out signs. One of those groups reports every dollar. Guess which.

Lyndon Dunkley, the Chief Financial Officer of Alberta's Choice, swore a second affidavit about what following the rules actually costs: about 90 seconds per donation entered into Elections Alberta's system, and anywhere from ten minutes to three and a half hours a week. Every report filed on time since June 5.

That's what compliance looks like. It's tedious, and it's the law. We do it. Every independence group does it. The other federalist groups do it. Why is one group exempt, and why won't the regulator say?

On September 9, Chad served the application on Elections Alberta (with a copy to its lawyers), on Alberta's Minister of Justice, and on Forever Canadian itself — with a plain statement that Forever Canadian is not a respondent and no relief is sought against it. You can read those letters here.

One law. One standard.

You may be voting to remain on October 19. That's fine. This isn't about which way you vote.

It's about whether the referee calls the game the same way for both teams. If a regulator can quietly exempt one side of a referendum from the disclosure rules, and then refuse to even answer a complaint about it until the vote is over, then the rules aren't rules. And if Elections Alberta can do it in a referendum, it can do it in the next election too.

Elections Alberta has never been shy about scrutinizing us. Years ago it investigated Rebel News over Sheila Gunn Reid's book, Stop Notley, arguing that a book critical of the then-premier, sold during an election period, was unregistered political advertising. We fought it, and we've paid penalties over technicalities like that. We're not asking for a free pass now. We're asking for the same scrutiny, applied the same way, to everyone.

Help us pay for it

Our lawyer Chad Williamson doesn't work for free, and an emergency judicial review — a full application, two sworn affidavits and a hearing that has to happen before October 19 — isn't cheap. Nobody else in Alberta was going to do this. Not the other media. Not the government. Us.

If you think this referendum deserves one set of rules for everyone, please chip in what you can. Every dollar goes to the legal bill, and we'll post what happens in court on Monday — win or lose.