Forcing private businesses to post the Progressive Conservative government’s stickers on gasoline pumps is a violation of Charter rights, warns the Canadian Civil Liberties Association.

In a letter to Attorney General Caroline Mulroney and Energy Minister Greg Rickford, the association urged the government to revisit a decal debacle that could see gas stations fined up to $10,000 a day for non-compliance.

“The sticker as proposed constitutes compelled political speech and, at the very least, is an unreasonable violation … of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms,” lawyers Steven Sofer and Sandra Barton wrote Monday.

“We ask that you abandon any efforts to move this legislation forward. Should this legislation pass, as is, we have been instructed to immediately commence a Charter challenge in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice,” the lawyers continued.

“In this regard we would like to meet with you to discuss a schedule for that challenge.”

Responding to the lawyers with his own letter, Rickford said “our government is taking measures to ensure that all Ontarians know the full impact of the federal carbon tax every time they fill up at the pump.”

“These transparency measures will make sure that families and small business know exactly how much carbon tax adds to the price per litre at every gas pump across the province,” the energy minister wrote.

“It’s unfortunate that the Canadian Civil Liberties Association doesn’t share these values for Ontario.”

The CCLA joins the Ontario Chamber of Commerce in opposing the mandatory Tory-blue stickers that tout the impact on gas prices of the federal Liberals’ carbon-pricing measures.

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Ontario Chamber of Commerce asks government to abandon gas pump sticker plan

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Ford’s sticker shock at the gas pumps: $10,000 fines for scofflaws who forgo decals warning of cost of federal carbon pricing

Last week, the chamber’s president Rocco Rossi blasted the scheme as “an example of unnecessary red tape.”

“It is both a new administrative burden and an increased cost to business thanks to the punitive and outsized fines for non-compliance,” said Rossi.

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His complaint came after NDP MPP Taras Natyshak complained to Canada’s chief electoral officer Stéphane Perrault two weeks ago.

“I am writing to you concerning what I believe could be a violation of Canada’s election advertising rules,” wrote Natyshak (Essex).

“As you are aware, Part 16, section 319 of the Canada Elections Act, 2000 defines elections advertising as: … ‘the transmission to the public by any means, during an election period, of an advertising message that promotes or opposes a registered party or the election of a candidate, including one that takes a position on an issue with which a registered party or candidate is associated.’ ”

The New Democrat is concerned the stickers will still be on pumps during the federal campaign period this fall.

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“These stickers are clearly advertising within the definition of the Act. They are also, clearly, partisan in their aim. In the words of ... Rickford: ‘We’re going to stick it to the Liberals and remind the people of Ontario how much this job-killing, regressive carbon tax costs.’”

The energy minister has said the 25,000 stickers will be printed by Astley Gilbert at a cost to taxpayers of $4,954.

That expenditure is part of Premier Doug Ford’s $30-million crusade against the carbon levy, which includes about $1 million on a court challenge.

Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner has called the decals misleading because they don’t explain the federal rebates or the skyrocketing cost of insurance rates due to climate change.

Robert Benzie is the Star’s Queen’s Park bureau chief and a reporter covering Ontario politics. Follow him on Twitter: @robertbenzie

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