Communist party candidate booted from CAW Centre
By Clarissa Guyton
Lance Writer
October 15, 2008
 On Tuesday, Oct. 6, Communist Party candidate for Windsor West, Elizabeth Rowley, was asked to leave the CAW Centre by Campus Community Police while exercising her right to campaign.
Rowley said that she had set up a display in order to campaign for the upcoming Canadian election when she was first approached by someone from the information desk and asked to leave. Rowley tried explaining to her that it was her right to be there.
“I provided her with a pamphlet showing that I have a right to campaign here and she wouldn’t even read it,” said Rowley. “I explained to her that it was my right to campaign here because it is a public place, and the Canada Elections Act confirms this.”
The sixth part of the Canada Elections Act addresses candidate concerns, and under section 81 it reads that “no person who is in control of a building, land, street or any other place, any part of which is open without charge to members of the public, whether on a continuous, periodic or occasional basis—including any commercial, business, cultural, historical, educational, religious, governmental, entertainment or recreational place—may prevent a candidate or his or her representative from campaigning in or on that part when it is open without charge to members of the public.”
Rowley added she felt that the administration’s rules were taking precedence over the Canada Elections Act, and with the facts behind her, she took her case directly to Elections Canada in Ottawa and to the returning officer, Mary Louise Thibert. Thibert contacted the University of Windsor Students’ Alliance (UWSA) president Tiffany Gooch and explained that it was illegal to interrupt the election process by asking a candidate to leave a public place.
“I guess Tiffany went and spoke with the [Campus Community Police] and let them know that what they did was illegal,” Rowley said, confident that things would have been handled differently if she were a member of another main party, such as Liberal, Conservative or NDP.
“Also, I think that it has to do with the fact that the national networks only allow the three parties—now finally four parties—to debate in the elections in the national debate,” Rowley said.
“The University is supposed to be a place where people can freely express beliefs. We have democratic rights in this country, but only as long as people are up to fight for them,” Rowley added.
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