The Green Party of Canada will go to court if necessary to persuade Canada's broadcast consortium to include leader Elizabeth May in the televised leaders' debates for the federal election due to be called on Sunday.
"There is no democratic debate without the Green Party's voice," said Jim Harris, Campaign Chair and former party leader, at a press conference outside the Toronto court house on Wednesday.
The party has retained Toronto lawyer Peter Rosenthal to represent them in negotiations with the consortium.
"The courts will be used only if the Green Party's strong arguments and public support are rebuffed by the media cartel," said Harris, "However, we will not hesitate to go to the courts to defend democracy in Canada."
The consortium consists of CBC, Radio Canada, TVA, Global and my employer, CTV (for obvious reasons, I'm not going to say very much about this issue).
Robert Hurst, president of CTV News and spokesman for the consortium, said the networks have met with political parties, including the Green party, and are trying to reach consensus on a number of issues.
No decision has been made yet, he said.
"The question is as always, who should be at the debates and are the Greens, without any elected members of Parliament, do they have a seat there? These issues are fairly well-known," said Hurst.
On Saturday, the Greens announced that former Liberal MP Blair Wilson, who occupies a B.C. seat, would become the party's first MP.
Federal Court has ruled against the Greens' arguments for inclusion in the past, deciding that courts shouldn't interfere with the independence of debates organized by journalists, Hurst said.
But the Green party's lawyer Peter Rosenthal said the CRTC has allowed election coverage to be inequitable in recent years by excluding the Greens.
He said there is evidence that exclusion from the televised debates causes irreparable damage to a party's chances in an election, and claimed previous court decisions should support their cause.
"The Green Party of Canada has been knocking on the door of the leaders' debates for a long time," said Rosenthal.
"It's my view that now they are legally as well as politically required to be in that door."