We took the referendum cheaters to court — and won.

Please help us cover the legal bill.

We sued Elections Alberta to make it decide our complaint before the vote. On October 15, four days before Albertans vote, it did.

Here’s what happened. Thomas Lukaszuk’s Forever Canadian ran the biggest “remain” campaign in the referendum — a Unity Bus, offices in Calgary and Edmonton, tens of thousands of lawn signs, a free Jann Arden concert — and for fifteen straight weeks its line on Elections Alberta’s public register said $0.00. Every independence campaign, including our own Alberta’s Choice, reported every dollar every week.

Everybody complained. On July 24 we did something about it: our lawyers filed a 241-page formal complaint. Elections Alberta gave us a file number and silence. So on September 10 we took them to the Court of King’s Bench to force a decision before Albertans voted.

Eleven days later, Mr. Lukaszuk called a press conference and announced that “as of this moment” Forever Canadian would follow the rules. The day after that, Elections Alberta’s lawyers told a judge our case was “not urgent” and “hopeless,” and that we weren’t even entitled to know whether an investigation existed.

Now we know. The Election Commissioner’s Notice of Outcome, dated October 15, confirms that Forever Canadian was put under investigation on August 20 — while all of that was being said in court — that a Notice of Investigation was served, that the Commissioner found Forever Canadian speakers taking a position on the referendum question, and that it ended in a compliance agreement. Lukaszuk now has to separate his referendum money from his other donations and report the cost of his town hall and every Unity Bus event from August 20 on. You can read the letter, and every document in this fight, at StopTheCheaters.com.

That is exactly what we went to court for: a decision before the vote, in writing, delivered to us. We got it.

It doesn’t answer everything. The agreement only reaches back to August 20, not June 8. It names no fine. It doesn’t say who paid for fifteen weeks of bus, offices and signs. We’ll keep asking.

What’s settled is the bill. Lawyers, two 300-page sworn affidavits, an emergency court appearance, written briefs — against a regulator with taxpayer-funded counsel. Our legal costs are in the mid-five figures. Rebel News paid every step of it, and nobody else in Alberta was going to. We don’t take a dime of government money, as you know.

If you believe the biggest campaign in a referendum should follow the same rules as the smallest, and that the regulator should have to say so before the vote, can you please chip in below to help us pay for it?