Adbusters Appears in B.C. Supreme Court

The Adbusters suit to get the major TV outlets to run its ads entered a new phase yesterday. The British Columbia Supreme Court began hearing argument on two motions, one to add the CBC as a party and the other by CanWest to have the case dismissed, presumably as showing no cause of action (the details are scarce, as usual when a lawsuit is involved). Adbusters has tried and failed to get the major networks to run its ads for Buy Nothing Day or those attacking the fast food and forestry industries. It seems–as I said, the details are scarce–that Adbusters is attempting to mount a free speech Charter challenge, one hurdle in which will be whether the Charter applies to the big media outlets as a result of their being granted quasi-monopolies by the Canadian Radio and Television Commission.

You can read a backgrounder piece in the online version of the current Adbuster Magazine and a story based on yesterday’s press release on Marketing Magazine.

Counsel for Adbusters is Ryan Dalziel of the Vancouver firm Bull, Housser & Tupper LLP.

Too bad the arguments won’t be carried on TV, or the internet. But speaking of which, I note that Bull, Housser & Tupper LLP offer serious seminars onBHTV. I ran into some technical problems — stuttering sound in the Flash version, no sound in the WMV version and no joy at all in the Quicktime version. But the idea is good.