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CanPol: Meet the New Boss
Same as the old boss...
Crooked federal parties abound. *sigh*
The Rhino Party is looking better by the day.
Tories overspent on election by $1M: HQ raid warrant
Last Updated: Monday, April 21, 2008 | 8:09 AM ET Comments44Recommend59CBC News
The federal Conservatives are accused of exceeding their campaign spending limit by more than $1 million and making "false and misleading" statements in their financial returns in the last election, Elections Canada says in the warrant for last week's raid on party headquarters.
The Canadian Press obtained a copy of the documents, which were supposed to be released Monday by an Ontario court.
Other media, including the Toronto Star and CTVglobemedia, received the documents in a private briefing from the Conservatives on Sunday in Ottawa, the CBC's Keith Boag reported.
Boag said CBC News requested to attend the briefings, but was rejected and told by party spokesman Ryan Sparrow that it was a private meeting. Reporters from the Canadian Press, Maclean's magazine and Canwest Global Communications Corp., along with others, were also excluded.
Giving some reporters a briefing before Monday's court release of the warrant allows the party a chance to shape the story, but it also creates the impression that the Conservatives need to spin it, Boag said.
According to the documents, the search warrant, executed by the RCMP last Tuesday upon request from Elections Canada, includes:
E-mails and correspondence between Conservative party representatives, the Conservative Fund Canada and ad-buying agency Retail Media.
Financial documents such as receipts, invoices, contracts and meeting minutes.
Advertisement scripts and recordings for radio or television.
'In-and-out' scheme
The documents allege the Conservatives engaged in a so-called "in-and-out" scheme — directing money to local candidates, who then transferred the funds back to the party to spend on more advertising for the national campaign.
The affidavit, signed by Elections Canada investigator Robert Lamothe, said this scheme allowed the party "to spend more than $1 million over and above" the legal campaign limit of $18 million.
This funnelling was "entirely under the control of and at the direction of officials of the Conservative Fund Canada and/or the Conservative Party of Canada," the 68-page supporting affidavit for the warrant said. "The Conservative Party of Canada exceeded its election expense spending limit for the 39th federal general election."
The documents also allege the party's financial arm, the Conservative Fund of Canada, filed returns "that it knew or ought reasonably to have known contained a materially false or misleading statement."
The Conservatives maintain they did nothing wrong and provided Elections Canada with all requested documents.
Media 'circus'
The Conservatives accused Elections Canada of creating a media "circus" out of the raid of their offices, which they have linked to a civil lawsuit brought by the party against Elections Canada.
Elections Canada said the RCMP executed the search warrant at the request of William Corbett, commissioner of elections.
Corbett, who enforces the Canada Elections Act, launched an investigation in April 2007 after chief electoral officer Marc Mayrand challenged the Tory spending claims in the 2006 election.
The Conservative Party, having reached the $18.3-million advertising spending limit set out under the Canada Elections Act, is alleged to have transferred cash to 66 local campaign offices, after which the local campaigns sent the money back to national party headquarters to buy local television and radio advertisements for their candidates.
Elections Canada says the advertisements produced through the local offices didn't qualify as local spending because they were too similar to national ads.
The ads looked exactly the same as the national ads, except for small print or the names of the individual candidates.
Financial agents for some of the Conservative candidates later asked to be reimbursed for those expenses, which came to a total of $1.3 million. Candidates who get 10 per cent of the votes in their riding get a portion of their election expenses returned from Elections Canada.
Elections Canada refused, saying the party, not the candidates, paid for the ads.
Van Loan defends practice
The Conservatives maintain they didn't break any rules. Government House leader Peter Van Loan said all parties engage in the practice, which he said is perfectly legal.
"Other parties do exactly the same type of spending," he said Wednesday in the House.
Soon after Corbett launched his investigation, the Conservatives went to Federal Court in an attempt to force Mayrand to reimburse the expenses to the Conservative candidates. That case has not yet reached a hearing stage, with the party and Elections Canada still filing evidentiary briefs.
Last Updated: Monday, April 21, 2008 | 8:09 AM ET Comments44Recommend59CBC News
The federal Conservatives are accused of exceeding their campaign spending limit by more than $1 million and making "false and misleading" statements in their financial returns in the last election, Elections Canada says in the warrant for last week's raid on party headquarters.
The Canadian Press obtained a copy of the documents, which were supposed to be released Monday by an Ontario court.
Other media, including the Toronto Star and CTVglobemedia, received the documents in a private briefing from the Conservatives on Sunday in Ottawa, the CBC's Keith Boag reported.
Boag said CBC News requested to attend the briefings, but was rejected and told by party spokesman Ryan Sparrow that it was a private meeting. Reporters from the Canadian Press, Maclean's magazine and Canwest Global Communications Corp., along with others, were also excluded.
Giving some reporters a briefing before Monday's court release of the warrant allows the party a chance to shape the story, but it also creates the impression that the Conservatives need to spin it, Boag said.
According to the documents, the search warrant, executed by the RCMP last Tuesday upon request from Elections Canada, includes:
E-mails and correspondence between Conservative party representatives, the Conservative Fund Canada and ad-buying agency Retail Media.
Financial documents such as receipts, invoices, contracts and meeting minutes.
Advertisement scripts and recordings for radio or television.
'In-and-out' scheme
The documents allege the Conservatives engaged in a so-called "in-and-out" scheme — directing money to local candidates, who then transferred the funds back to the party to spend on more advertising for the national campaign.
The affidavit, signed by Elections Canada investigator Robert Lamothe, said this scheme allowed the party "to spend more than $1 million over and above" the legal campaign limit of $18 million.
This funnelling was "entirely under the control of and at the direction of officials of the Conservative Fund Canada and/or the Conservative Party of Canada," the 68-page supporting affidavit for the warrant said. "The Conservative Party of Canada exceeded its election expense spending limit for the 39th federal general election."
The documents also allege the party's financial arm, the Conservative Fund of Canada, filed returns "that it knew or ought reasonably to have known contained a materially false or misleading statement."
The Conservatives maintain they did nothing wrong and provided Elections Canada with all requested documents.
Media 'circus'
The Conservatives accused Elections Canada of creating a media "circus" out of the raid of their offices, which they have linked to a civil lawsuit brought by the party against Elections Canada.
Elections Canada said the RCMP executed the search warrant at the request of William Corbett, commissioner of elections.
Corbett, who enforces the Canada Elections Act, launched an investigation in April 2007 after chief electoral officer Marc Mayrand challenged the Tory spending claims in the 2006 election.
The Conservative Party, having reached the $18.3-million advertising spending limit set out under the Canada Elections Act, is alleged to have transferred cash to 66 local campaign offices, after which the local campaigns sent the money back to national party headquarters to buy local television and radio advertisements for their candidates.
Elections Canada says the advertisements produced through the local offices didn't qualify as local spending because they were too similar to national ads.
The ads looked exactly the same as the national ads, except for small print or the names of the individual candidates.
Financial agents for some of the Conservative candidates later asked to be reimbursed for those expenses, which came to a total of $1.3 million. Candidates who get 10 per cent of the votes in their riding get a portion of their election expenses returned from Elections Canada.
Elections Canada refused, saying the party, not the candidates, paid for the ads.
Van Loan defends practice
The Conservatives maintain they didn't break any rules. Government House leader Peter Van Loan said all parties engage in the practice, which he said is perfectly legal.
"Other parties do exactly the same type of spending," he said Wednesday in the House.
Soon after Corbett launched his investigation, the Conservatives went to Federal Court in an attempt to force Mayrand to reimburse the expenses to the Conservative candidates. That case has not yet reached a hearing stage, with the party and Elections Canada still filing evidentiary briefs.
Crooked federal parties abound. *sigh*
The Rhino Party is looking better by the day.
No one worse than those two atm.
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