Today the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 against speech with respect to the communication of election results in Eastern provinces to voters in Western parts of the country where polls are still open.

First of all, the law is absurd because it reflects wishful thinking on behalf of the state and doesn’t at all reflect the reality of the situation. If the state wished to prevent the dissemination of election results, it could mandate that all polls close at the same time. Specifically, a poll in Halifax would close at 10pm and a poll in Vancouver would close at 6pm (local times).

I understand the rationale behind the decision in that it is desirable to keep all of the electorate on the same level with respect to information available prior to casting a ballot.

However, the burden is upon the government to manage the situation using a solid and foolproof method, and not upon citizens that have the right to speech whether online, via txt message, via instant message, via telephone or telegraph. As it stands, the state is patching its leaky bucket with rights inherent to Canadians.