Green Party takes legal steps after being excluded from another leaders debate
Posted September 20, 2015 1:49 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – The Green Party is being excluded from yet another federal leaders debate and this time Elizabeth May is not taking the news lying down.
Her lawyers are now taking legal action.
The Greens have filed a complaint with the Canada Revenue Agency to have the Aurea Foundation, the sponsor of the Munk Leaders Debate, stripped of its charitable status.
The event is being hosted on September 28th at Toronto’s Roy Thomson Hall, which itself is a charitable foundation.
The party points out the Income Tax Act prohibits charitable foundations from taking part in activities the directly or indirectly support or oppose any political party or candidate.
“So, by excluding Elizabeth May, these two charitable entities are working against the Green Party of Canada and supporting the Conservatives, the Liberals, and the NDP,” explains former Green Party leader Jim Harris.
Harris says Conservative Leader Stephen Harper conspired to have May excluded.
“I can’t prove it but I am certain that’s what happened,” he claims.
“This is Harper dictating terms to organizers of these debates saying, ‘If you want to have a debate you have to exclude Elizabeth May.”
Last week, the leaders of the Conservatives, the Liberals, and the NDP took part in the Globe and Mail leaders debate.
May wasn’t invited to that event either.
