Elections BC Says That Accuracy Of 3rd Party Ads Does Not Matter.

SomeThingsAreWorseThan
UselessVille


Gabriel Yiu is raising the spectre of the smear once again.

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You may remember Mr. Yiu....

He was the 2009 Dipper candidate in Fraserview who was the victim the Stallion's Mojitos man's foreign language smeary-smears.


Mr. Yiu was also attacked earlier this year by that most upstanding of all BC Liberal MLA's, Mr. Bill Bennett, while the latter was sitting simultaneously pretty and potty-mouthed as a member of the Ledgeness Protection Program.

Of course the usual suspects, both inside the Clark warrior wizard room and, allegedly, outside immediately piled on.

Which brings us to now...

Because, once again, Mr Yiu is raising the alarm.

This time it would appear that a most excellent group of Anton-friendly finest of the finefolks who call themselves the Better B.C. Coalition made stuff up about Mr. Yiu and the BCNDP that they published as third party advertisements in the Chinese language press during the election just past.

Carlito Pablo, in the G. Straight, has Mr. Yiu's story:

...According to Yiu, the Better B.C. Coalition took out an ad in the Chinese-language newspaper Ming Pao, circulated fliers, and passed around a poster by email that misrepresented his party’s stance on marijuana, natural-gas exports, and taxes.

According to the English translation provided by Yiu of the Chinese-language materials, New Democrats “comprehensively” support the legalization of marijuana. Wondering if this will lead to cannabis being sold “publicly” in schools, they asked provocatively: “What would happen to our kids?”...

{snippety doo-dah}

...The material released by the Better B.C. Coalition also claimed that the New Democrats would stop plans to export natural gas to China, “seriously damaging Canada’s national interest and Sino-Canada trade”.

That’s also not true, Yiu said. In its election platform, the B.C. NDP pledged to support the development of a liquefied-natural-gas industry geared for exports to Asia.

The coalition likewise warned voters that New Democrats would tax businesses even before they made a profit. But according to Yiu, he and Vancouver–Mount Pleasant MLA Jenny Kwan clearly stated in an April 23 media release that the B.C. NDP would not bring in a general corporate capital tax..."

Egregious "make the b*stards deny it stuff" all on it's own, right?

Sure thing.

But here's the real kicker, from the nice people at Elections BC:

...Section 266 of the Election Act stipulates that an individual or organization commits an offence by providing “false or misleading information when required or authorized under this Act to provide information”. Nola Western, deputy chief electoral officer with Elections B.C., explained that the law requires truthful information with respect only to names, addresses, birth dates, phone numbers, and financial reports.

“The content of the advertisement and whether that content is accurate or not is not part of what is contemplated by Section 266,” Western told the Straight in a phone interview. “The content of the advertisement is not required or authorized by the Election Act.”...


In other words, as long as you get the trivial stuff right really big lies are just fine thank-you.

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And people wonder why this crap doesn't stop.

Sheesh.

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Personally, I'm waiting, with bated breath, for the Ron Obvious follow-up (i.e. the sequel to his big wet kiss to the Wizards of the War Room) about how fantabulous and far-sighted the 3rd party groups that just poured millions of dollars worth corrosive sulphuric acid in the eyes of our collective body politic really are.


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