Canada Elections Act

Marginal note:Strict liability offences — summary conviction

• 495 (1) Every person is guilty of an offence who

  • (a) being a candidate, a registered party or a person acting on behalf of a candidate or registered party, contravenes section 320 (failure to indicate authority for election advertising);

  • (a.1) being the owner or operator of an online platform, contravenes subsection 325.1(2) or (4) (failure to publish registry of partisan advertising messages and election advertising messages for required publication period) or subsection 325.1(5) (failure to keep information for required period);

  • (a.2) being a registered party, eligible party, registered association, nomination contestant, potential candidate, candidate or third party that is required to register under subsection 349.6(1) or 353(1), contravenes section 325.2 (failure to provide information about self);

  • (b) contravenes subsection 326(1) or (2) (failure to provide election survey information) or (2.1) (failure to ensure sponsor of election survey notified of date of transmission of election survey results) or, being a sponsor of an election survey, contravenes subsection 326(3) (failure to ensure report on election survey results is published); or

  • (c) contravenes section 327 (failure to indicate survey not based on recognized statistical methods).

• Marginal note:Offences requiring intent — summary conviction

  (2) Every person is guilty of an offence who,

  • (a) being a landlord or a condominium corporation, wilfully contravenes section 322 (prohibition of election advertising posters on residential premises); or

  • (b) contravenes section 325 (removal of election advertising).

• (3) [Repealed, 2018, c. 31, s. 333]

• Marginal note:Offences requiring intent — fine only, summary conviction

  (4) Every person is guilty of an offence who

  • (a) being the owner or operator of an online platform, knowingly contravenes subsection 325.1(2) or (4) (failure to publish registry of partisan advertising messages and election advertising messages for required publication period) or subsection 325.1(5) (failure to keep information for required period);

  • (a.1) knowingly contravenes subsection 326(1) or (2) (failure to provide election survey information) or (2.1) (failure to ensure sponsor of election survey notified of date of transmission of election survey results) or, being a sponsor of an election survey, knowingly contravenes subsection 326(3) (failure to ensure report on election survey results is published);

  • (b) wilfully contravenes section 327 (failure to indicate survey not based on recognized statistical methods);

  • (c) wilfully contravenes subsection 328(2) (transmission of election survey results during blackout period);

  • (d) [Repealed, 2014, c. 12, s. 95]

  • (e) wilfully contravenes subsection 330(1) or (2) (foreign broadcasting);

  • (f) being a broadcaster, wilfully contravenes subsection 335(1) or, being a network operator, wilfully contravenes subsection 335(2) (failure to make broadcasting time available);

  • (g) being a broadcaster, wilfully contravenes subsection 339(3) (failure to make additional broadcasting time available) or 339(4) (failure to adjust broadcasting time) or, being a network operator, wilfully contravenes subsection 345(1) (failure to make free broadcasting time available);

  • (h) wilfully contravenes section 348 (failure to charge lowest rate for broadcasting time or advertising space);

  • (i) being a broadcaster or a network operator, fails to comply with an allocation of or entitlement to broadcasting time under this Act; or

  • (j) being a broadcaster or a network operator, makes available to a registered party or eligible party within the period described in subsection 335(1) more broadcasting time than is required to be made available by it to that party by an allocation under sections 337 and 338 or entitlement under section 339, without making available to each other registered party or eligible party an amount of additional equivalent broadcasting time that is based on the percentage of broadcasting time made available to it by the original allocation or entitlement.

• Marginal note:Offences requiring intent — dual procedure

  (5) Every person is guilty of an offence who

  • (a) knowingly contravenes subsection 323(1) (conducting election advertising during blackout period);

  • (a.1) being a registered party, eligible party, registered association, nomination contestant, potential candidate, candidate or third party that is required to register under subsection 349.6(1) or 353(1), knowingly contravenes section 325.2 (failure to provide information about self); or

  • (b) knowingly contravenes subsection 328(1) (causing transmission of election survey results during blackout period).