(LifeSiteNews) — A federal judge ruled that lawn signs promoting a book written by Rebel News editor and founder Ezra Levant that was critical of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during the 2019 election violated the Elections Act and were subject to fines because Levant did not “register” as a campaign advertiser.
Justice Cecily Strickland, in a recent court ruling, said Levant’s book promotion in 2019 via lawn “signs were election advertising.”
Levant had been fighting a $3,000 fine he received for the lawn signs. According to Strickland, the fines had nothing to do with the book’s title of content, as per Blacklock’s Reporter.
The court wrote that a “partisan book is not election advertising,” but it was the promotion of the book that was, and this happened during an election.
Levant’s book is titled The Libranos: What the media won’t tell you about Justin Trudeau’s corruption.
During the fall 2019 Canadian Federal Election, Levant promoted his new book with posters, lawn signs, billboards and other methods.
In June 2019, the federal government amended Canada’s Elections Act. The rules require third parties, including non-profit groups, register with Elections Canada if they spend more than $500 on any kind of “political advertising.” This includes any spending that boosts positions taken during election campaigns regarding issues of public policy. The new Elections Act also sets spending limits on third-party election advertising.
According to Levant, the Election Act exempts books from the new law. However, he was later fined after being investigated for the use of lawn signs.
Levant said at the time of the incident, “The day I register with the government to write a book is the day we no longer are the true north strong and free. And if Elections Canada’s commissioners are stupid enough to prosecute me for writing, publishing, and promoting a book about an election during an election, then that’s an important fight to have.”
Levant, a well-known Canadian media personality and political activist, also said in early 2020 he was being investigated because he chose to publish the book critical of Trudeau during the 2019 election and for not “registering” his book with the government to promote it.
He even posted portions of a video in which he secretly recorded himself being interviewed by government agents regarding his book.
Elections Act rules mandate that all election campaign activity be regulated, though section 349 permits the “distribution of a book or the promotion of the sale of a book.”
However, the Elections Commissioner ruled that Levant’s book promoting lawn signs was not a book promotion but was timed to attack Trudeau during the election.
“It is clear the so-called book exemption applies only in relation to a book that would have been published whether or not the election was called,” the commissioner said at the time.
Levant launched his book two days before the 2019 federal election.
“There is little doubt the lawn signs were intended to, and did, oppose a registered party,” federal investigators wrote at the time.
“That they may also have been intended to promote the referenced book during the election period does not change the fact,” they added.
In 2021, Levant’s lawyers argued that the case involved free speech, saying Canada’s “Charter guarantees ‘freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression including freedom of the press and other media of communication.’”
“Among other things, this protection promotes participation in social and political decision making and denies the state the power to suppress opinion and commentary,” they added.
Trudeau won the 2019 Canadian Federal Election by a narrow margin over his main conservative rival, then-party leader Andrew Scheer.