Elections Canada to charge Moore

by Justin Boudreau

July 15, 2004

Elections Canada will lay charges against shockumentary filmmaker Michael Moore.

Officially, Elections Canada will neither confirm nor deny plans to lay formal charges against Moore. However, Canadafreepress.com has learned through sources that charges are imminent and expected by the end of next week.

The anti-Bush Moore, who often lets his mouth get ahead of him, may think he got away with the boner of the Canadian release of Fahrenheit 11 just days ahead of the June 28 federal election, but there is the little matter of election law infringement.

Moore’s pre-election advice lecturing Canadian voters not to vote Conservative quickly enraged a number of Conservative Party supporters who launched the website: www.chargeMoore.comin an effort to encourage Elections Canada to uphold its own law.

Moore’s tactics encompass what legal beagles believe is a direct violation of Canada electoral law. Under the "Non-Interference by Foreigners" clause (Part 11, Division 9, section 331) of the Canadian Elections Act:

No person who does not reside in Canada shall, during an election period, in any way induce electors to vote or refrain from voting for a particular candidate unless the person is

As far as the letter of the law is concerned "I love Canada," as Moore has stated, does not count.

Penalties under the Canada Elections Act for such violations are a $2,000 fine--or a jail term of six months less a day. Kasra Nejatian, spokesperson for chargeMoore.com and his lawyers aren’t interested in the fines. "They (the fines) can be higher, but we aren’t interested in that. What we want is the jail time," Nejatian told Canadafreepress.com.

Once charges are laid, the small force behind chargeMoore.com is confident that they will be successful. "It (the Act) is fairly clear here. He has no wiggle room."

Nejatian, however is being realistic. While he doesn’t expect Pooh-Bah Moore to spend a single night in the slammer, he is anticipating that such a charge would all but bar the Michigan-native film maker from ever entering Canada again, a point he sees as a bonus as bright as any star.

Encouraged by the amount of public support his online petition has found, Nejatian says he’s hoping that even more Canadians will log on at www.chargeMoore .com to sign up.

"There’s no excuse for a foreign socialist millionaire to show up in our country and try to spread his propaganda," he said.