Manitoba election disinformation bill goes into 'uncharted waters,' analyst says

Matt Wiebe, Minister of Justice and Attorney General, is sworn-in by Lt.-Gov. Anita Neville at a swearing-in ceremony in Winnipeg, Oct. 18, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/John Woods

WINNIPEG — 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 error, I think.”

Justice Minister Matt Wiebe said the bill is based on recent legislation in British Columbia, a report from Elections Manitoba — the independent body that governs elections — and a review of laws in other jurisdictions.

The provincial Elections Act already forbids people from knowingly disseminating false information about candidates in the time leading up to an election, impersonating election officials and more. Penalties include fines of up to $10,000 and a year in jail.

Wiebe’s bill, introduced in the legislature Tuesday, would expand that provision to cover intentionally misleading information about voter eligibility, the conduct of elections officials and the people or companies who provide ballots and vote-counting machines.

The ban on knowingly disseminating false information would be expanded to also include people who have a “reckless disregard” of the veracity of the false information.

There is also a provision to cover updated technology such as “deepfakes” — altered electronic images or audio recordings — aimed at affecting election results.

The bill aims to draw a clear line between erroneous information and deliberate falsehoods, Wiebe said. In many cases, disinformation is clearly not accidental — such as people impersonating an election official to mislead voters, he added.

The bill also gives the provincial elections commissioner new powers to quickly issue stop notices to people engaged in disinformation. The notices can carry fines of up to $20,000 a day if they are ignored.

“We’re giving additional authority to Elections Manitoba to have this kind of oversight that can really go in and make sure that if disinformation is out there, that they’re able to put a stop to it and they’re able to make sure that the information voters are getting is clear,” Wiebe said.

The fines for ignoring a stop notice are in addition to the existing fines for people convicted — usually months later — of violating the law.

The bill is expected to be debated in the coming weeks and could go to a final vote by early June.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 12, 2025.

Steve Lambert, The Canadian Press