Court Won’t Hear Green Party Challenge Before Debates

Lawyers for Elizabeth May had urged a judge to expedite a hearing on whether to include her in the federal leaders’ election debates.

It’s official. Elizabeth May will not participate in the election debates next week. The Green party leader launched a court challenge against the media consortium that organizes the televised events once she learned she would be excluded, hoping to convince a judge that she should be allowed to debate the other leaders because her party won nearly one million votes during the last election. But she appears to have left it too late and a Federal Court judge sided with lawyers for the media group, who argued that rushing the proceedings would not give either side the time to prepare their case. The English-language debate is slated for April 12, with the French-language event coming two days later.