Manitoba election disinformation bill goes into uncharted waters, analyst says – Winnipeg [Video]

The Manitoba government is entering new territory with a plan to crack down on election disinformation and fine people up to $20,000 a day if offending material is not removed, a veteran political analyst said Wednesday.

New steps must be taken to combat the growing ease with which false information can be spread, but some of the proposed changes appear to require election officials to judge the mindset of potential offenders, said Paul Thomas, professor emeritus of political studies at the University of Manitoba.

“We’re going into really uncharted waters here of looking into the motivation behind the placement of certain messages into the political environment,” Thomas said.

“If you’re merely trying to undermine the claims of the governing party or the opposition party, then does that qualify as misconduct under this kind of new law? I don’t know, we’ll have to see. It’ll all be experimental and trial and …