Anti-Kyoto group in the clear

By Jon Roe

Elections Canada declared that ads paid for by a University of Calgary research account and ran by an anti-Kyoto group during the 2006 election campaign were not third party advertising and therefore violated no laws. The Friends of Science, a Calgary-based organization that questions the science behind the Kyoto protocol and argues that the sun is the prime driver behind global warming, was under investigation for radio ads that ran during the 2006 election campaign in Ontario.

The DeSmog Blog and another unnamed individual filed complaints against the FOS organization alleging the ads were paid for by a U of C research account and the organization had not registered as a third party advertiser. Richard Littlemore, a writer at the DeSmog Blog, is disappointed with the decision.

“Elections Canada has chosen to read the letter of the law in a way that will be least likely to upset the current government,” said Littlemore. “And what they’ve said . . . is that because no political party was named in the Friends of Science ads, they were not partisan ads. That’s just silly. It’s technically correct. It’s literally correct, but it doesn’t make any sense.”

Elections Canada indicated they completed their investigation in a Sept. 4 letter to Gerald Chipeur, the FOS lawyer.

The U of C shut down two research accounts run by political science professor Barry Cooper last year after conducting an internal audit into the account’s expenditures. According to an e-mail sent in December to sourcewatch.org, an online encyclopedia, the university determined “that some of the program funds had been used to support a partisan viewpoint on climate change.”

The audit was released by the university in April and included recommendations to address the problems raised by the university’s interactions with the FOS, including the political activities funded by the research accounts. U of C vice-president external relations Roman Cooney said the key recommendations were implemented immediately and others were in the process of working through committees, but would not comment in detail.

He added the university would not make any further comment until all investigations were complete and that the U of C had not heard back from the Canada Revenue Agency.

The university files returns to the CRA annually as a registered charity and must mark whether it engaged in any non-partisan political activities during that fiscal year. In the U of C’s two most recent returns available online, 2006 and 2007, it marked that it had not engaged in political activities. Registered charities cannot participate in partisan political activities. Charities can have their charitable status revoked if they fail to file a return or if they have broken any rules.

The CRA cannot confirm whether any organization or individual is under investigation due to confidentiality laws.

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