SEX PARTY DEFEATS CANADA POST

Tuesday January 15, 2008

Judge Orders Canada Post to rewrite regulations

The Sex Party, a registered political party in BC, has succeeded in its litigation against Canada Post.

We won!

Our lawsuit stems from Canada Post's refusal to deliver the party's tasteful and informative political flyer in the midst of the 2006 federal election. The prohibition was based on Canada Post's internal rules prohibiting all sexually explicit material, a term that was not defined.

The judge ruled that Canada Post did not have legal authority to prohibit our election flyer and ordered Canada Post to clean up its legal act and re-write its regulations.

The court accepted the Sex Party argument that more senior regulations issued by the federal Cabinet stipulate that only ILLEGAL material can be prohibited by Canada Post. The judge found that the Sex Party flyer was not illegal in any way. The judge held that Canada Post cannot draft regulations that are more onerous than those issued by the federal Cabinet. Therefore, the prohibition was illegal.

The judge gave Canada Post six months to re-write its regulations, and suspended his order allowing our application until the expiration of that period.

We await with interest the new regulations Canada Post must enact. If they do not ensure our legal rights, we will be back in court.