DAMN MEDDLESOME YANKEES

Moore Madness: Canadians fight back! (Peter Jaworski, NRO. July 16th, 2004)

Michael Moore might be in trouble in America for violating the McCain-Feingold campaign-finance rules. Fahrenheit 9/11, a movie lambasting President George W. Bush for the decision to invade Afghanistan and Iraq, comes awfully close to being a political advertisement. The message? Don't vote for Bush. That's what David T. Hardy, coauthor of Michael Moore is a Big Fat Stupid White Man, thinks. He says McCain-Feingold is a "weird law" that would apply to the advertising for Moore's recent flick.

And now, a new website is claiming Moore is also in breach of an election law north of the border. When Moore waddled into Canada's June 28 federal election with exhortations to vote for someone other than Conservative party candidate Stephen Harper, he may have broken the law.

Chargemoore.com, a Canadian website petitioning Canada's election officer Jean-Pierre Kingsley to charge Moore, claims that when Moore said things such as: "You've got four days after it [Fahrenheit 9/11] opens to get people out to the polls to make sure that Mr. Harper does not become your next prime minister," he violated Canada's law.

"Michael Moore is a loudmouth who has done a good job of annoying Americans," says Kasra Nejatian, a Queen's University business student and founder of the website. "The problem is that he usually only annoys people, this time he broke our laws. Not only is he a loudmouth, he is a loudmouth foreigner who breaks our laws."

Nejatian is quite serious about having Moore charged. To that end, he's retained the services of Jonathan Denis, a Calgary, Alberta lawyer, as legal counsel. Denis explains that Moore may have violated Section 331 of the Canada Elections Act. The Section reads: "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 (a) a Canadian citizen; or (b) a permanent resident."

Denis thinks the violation is pretty obvious.

Of course, the downside is that the election officer is now going through the Brothersjudd archives with fine tooth comb. Time for a road trip, Raoul.