Conservative Party HQ Raided By RCMP

[sky's the limit]

RCMP raid Conservative party headquarters over election matter

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/tories_rcmp_raid

By The Canadian Press


OTTAWA - The RCMP raided Conservative party headquarters in Ottawa on Tuesday at the request of Elections Canada.

A spokesman said elections commissioner William Corbett requested the assistance of the Mounties to execute a search warrant, but he wouldn't say why. "The commissioner has no further comment," John Enright said.

Elections Canada and the Conservative party have been engaged in a protracted legal battle over alleged campaign spending irregularities from the 2006 election.

At least two Mounties entered the party offices on the 12th floor of a downtown building as camera crews filmed. A short time later, two officers rolled a cart full of boxes and bags into a 17th-floor mailroom.

Corbett launched an investigation in April 2007 into $1.2-million worth of Conservative election television and radio advertising that was challenged by Chief Electoral Officer Marc Mayrand.

Mayrand refused to reimburse Conservative candidates for part of the advertising money when they claimed it as local expenses. The ads were produced for the party's national campaign, which has a separate limit for election spending.

The Conservatives insist the transactions were legal but Elections Canada disagrees and opposition parties have labelled the scheme outright fraud.

RCMP Cpl. Jean Hainey said the Mounties were merely assisting.

"It is not an RCMP investigation. We're there to assist, but that's it."

He would not provide any other details.

No one from the party was immediately available for comment and phone calls to the headquarters went unanswered.

An aide to the party's lawyer, Paul Lepsoe, said he was in a meeting and unable to return calls.

Election Canada's lawyer, Barbara McIssac, was also unavailable.

The Prime Minister's Office referred questions to the party.

Soon after Corbett launched his investigation, the Conservatives went to Federal Court in an attempt to force Mayrand to reimburse the expenses to 67 Conservative candidates.

That case has not yet reached a hearing stage, with the party and Elections Canada still filing evidentiary briefs.

The party orchestrated the transfers primarily in the final stages of the campaign for the 2006 election, transferring large amounts of cash - routinely up to $30,000 - to the candidates for advertising expenses.

[Chuck Ellsworth]

STL, I doubt that there would be any wrong doing in the Conservative party with Steven Harper in charge because I am led to believe he is a devout Christian.

[gasper]

While I have the absolute highest regard for Stephen Harper. (In fact I happen to believe that Canada has never had such a great prime minister...ever! Too bad, in fact sad that most Canadians don't realize this!)

With that being said though, remember Harper works with a variety of ambitious people, so he may not be aware of all that goes on in the Conservative Party, while he is busy running the country.

[CID]

Thanks for that last post gasper. It's been a slow day and and a good laugh was overdue.

[Chuck Ellsworth]

gasper, maybe you could get in touch with Harper and have him check up on what that idiot he has as the Minister of Transport is doing....

Do Christians have circle jerks ?

[sky's the limit]

While I have the absolute highest regard for Stephen Harper. (In fact I happen to believe that Canada has never had such a great prime minister...ever! Too bad, in fact sad that most Canadians don't realize this!)

With that being said though, remember Harper works with a variety of ambitious people, so he may not be aware of all that goes on in the Conservative Party, while he is busy running the country.

Oh, you meant that to be tongue in cheek.. I get it, I get it.

stl

[ScudRunner]

While I have the absolute highest regard for Stephen Harper. (In fact I happen to believe that Canada has never had such a great prime minister...ever! Too bad, in fact sad that most Canadians don't realize this!)

I agree 100% and im not joking.

[goates]

Do Christians have circle jerks ?

Isn't that what Bible study nights are??

[87Strat]

Harper has done a remarkable job when you consider his minority must run the gauntlet of a Liberal dominated media and Senate. I can just imagine talking head Mansbridge salivating over at the CBC when he gets to dictate tonights message.

I've reached the conclusion that this country doesn't need a Liberal Government, it deserves it. More "just society" elitism, and the usual US bashing. Too bad we Canadians are still in the evolutionary muck with the rest of the planet. No worse, but certainly not evolved enough to actually pretend like we're the only enlightened people on the planet.

Harper and his Conservatives might not be the perfect Gov't, but I'd take them over the usual Liberal crap everybody seems to conveniently forget about. Like I said it's what we deserve.

The heck with it, let's give the Libs a majority next go around. What do you say?? NDP??

Didn't think so....

[Siddley Hawker]

What do you say?? NDP??

Never in the wettest of NDP dreams will Canadian voters give the Dippers the keys to the cash box.

[Chuck Ellsworth]

I wonder what Harper is doing with the cash box?

Or is Harper an honest politician, if he is honest how did he get so far in politics?

[sky's the limit]

Harper's a scumbag, just like the rest of them.


We're starting to see all the same signs as we saw with previous Gov'ts, the longer he's in power, the more abuse of the Canadian Taxpayer there will be.

That said, old Steve and his right wing religious cronies scare the crap out of me, but then again, so do the politics of most Avcanada posters... oh well, back to my beer and the Hab's game....


stl

[Chuck Ellsworth]

That said, old Steve and his right wing religious cronies scare the crap out of me,

And me.

Having grown up in a religious cult and seen just how depraved these fundamentalists can get in the name of God I have learned to fear what they can do if they get the power to do it.

Christianity practiced by fanatics is no different than the Taliban.

[Dust Devil]

That said, old Steve and his right wing religious cronies scare the crap out of me,

And me.

Having grown up in a religious cult and seen just how depraved these fundamentalists can get in the name of God I have learned to fear what they can do if they get the power to do it.

Christianity practiced by fanatics is no different than the Taliban.

Are you saying Harper is as bad as the Taliban?

[Walker]

PRAISE JESUS!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKN4rMo5a6M

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=viHcNGfBixE

[Chuck Ellsworth]

Are you saying Harper is as bad as the Taliban?

No Dust Devil I did not say that.

I was expressing my thoughts on religious fanatics, I have no idea of what Harpers religious bent is.

I do know he is a politician and generally speaking politicians are by nature dishonest and self serving.

He could be the most honest man ever to be a the Prime Minister of Canada, but I do not see any indication of that judging by his Minister of Transport.

[Dust Devil]

I gotcha. It just appeared that in the context of the quote you responded to it sounded like you were calling Harper as bad as the Taliban. Glad you clarified that.

[ScudRunner]

Elections Canada and the Conservative party have been engaged in a protracted legal battle over alleged campaign spending irregularities from the 2006 election.

Well I agree same fly's different pile of shit but wich fly's are a flinging shit this time? Conservatives fly's don't think so, the liberal fly's more than likely trying to fling shit and score some points. So they spent more then they were allowed to on a campaign, did the extra coin somehow force voters into electing someone? I doubt it will that void an election result nope.

Anyway if Stephan Harper is so terrible I ask you this, what is the number one issue facing Canada right now?


#1 The Playoffs
#2 Afghanistan mission
#3 Where to Drink on the may long weekend
#4 Beer Prices
#5 Gas Prices
#6 Roll up the Rim to Win

[Widow]

I have no idea of what Harpers religious bent is.

Christian and Missionary Alliance, apparently.

[Widow]

Tory election spending probe unprecedented: experts
BRODIE FENLON

Globe and Mail Update

April 22, 2008 at 4:57 PM EDT

The Election Commissioner's probe of an alleged campaign spending scheme involving the federal Conservatives is unprecedented in the history of the office, experts say.

William Corbett is investigating allegations the Conservative Party exceeded the $18-million national campaign limit during the 2005-06 election by more than $1-million by transferring money to 67 local candidates who still had some personal spending room, then immediately taking it back to buy national ads. Sixty-five of those candidates allegedly claimed a 60-per-cent rebate on the amounts, totalling more than $700,000, according to court documents.

None of the allegations has been proven.

Elections Canada refused to comment on the investigation, but experts on Canadian electoral law say there's been nothing like it since the Commissioner's office was created in 1974, when Parliament made its first serious attempt to regulate candidate and party financing through the Election Expenses Act.

"To my knowledge, there has been nothing equivalent to this," said John Courtney, a political scientist at the University of Saskatchewan's Diefenbaker Canada Centre and an expert on Canada's electoral system.

"There's always little nickel and dime stuff in every election, but this is not nickel and dime ... those are major sums, at least by Canadian standards."

"There's nothing that I'm aware of of this scale involving a major party," added Aaron Freeman, co-author of The Laws of Government: The Legal Foundations of Canadian Democracy.

While federal parties and candidates — including Canada's first prime minister Sir John A. Macdonald — have been implicated in large-scale election finance scandals, these predate modern election financing laws, Mr. Freeman and Dr. Courtney noted.

As Commissioner of Canada Elections, an independent position appointed by the chief electoral officer, Mr. Corbett is responsible for investigating any alleged violations of the Canada Elections Act and Referendum Act. If he finds evidence of wrongdoing, he may refer the case to the director of public prosecutions to pursue it through the courts.

A review of prosecuted cases since 1992 suggests the vast majority are for minor offences such as the failure to register as a third party, failure to submit documents and expense claims, the removal of a candidate's poster, voting twice or removing a ballot from a polling station.

The most serious offences in recent years involved then-Liberal candidate Wajid Khan, who was charged, along with his former riding president, of exceeding the legal limit of election spending by $31,118. Mr. Khan's car dealership, Dufferin Mazda, was also charged with making unauthorized car payments.

Mr. Khan, who later crossed the floor to become a Conservative MP, pleaded guilty and was handed a $500 fine. The dealership and campaign manager were also fined.

Dr. Courtney, who is researching electoral reform as a Canada-U.S. Fulbright award holder at Washington's Brookings Institution, said the most recent allegations against the Conservatives are serious and unusual in scale.

"There's no question about it, those are major charges that are being levelled of overspending the limit and by putting money through an in-and-out arrangement through local candidates' offices," he said.

Andrew Heard, associated professor of political science at Simon Fraser University, concurs.

"The worst part of the problem is the alleged fraud — claiming for reimbursement of candidate expenses things that were not," he said.

"This is not just a technicality. In the process the party [allegedly] tried to do an end-run around the firm caps on party spending, which are very generous in the first place ... I think the allegation of fraud is much more troubling morally than trying to outspend the limits, although that is wrong in itself as well."

Prime Minister Stephen Harper addressed the growing scandal Tuesday, saying the case boils down to duelling "interpretations" of the Act.

"Elections Canada's view is that some of our local spending should count as national spending. We have a different view," Mr. Harper said in his first public comments since the Commissioner's damning affidavit and search warrants were made public over the weekend by party officials in a communications strategy gone awry.

"We always follow the law as we understand it and more importantly, we always follow the law as it has been interpreted," Mr. Harper said after a meeting with his U.S. and Mexican counterparts on trade and North American security.

"We were following in the last election the interpretations that had been put on that law in the past. If those interpretations change, we will of course conform, but we will expect the same rules for every single party," Mr. Harper said.

Election spending has often been a source of contention — and scandal — in Canadian politics. The Conservative government of Sir John A. Macdonald was likely undone by the Canadian Pacific Railway scandal of 1873. Telegrams and letters surfaced revealing that a contractor who won the railway construction job had contributed large sums of money to the prime minister's 1872 re-election campaign.

In one damning telegram sent a week before the election, Sir John A. wrote: "I must have another $10,000. Will be the last time of calling. Do not fail me. Answer today."

He was forced to resign and the party lost the election the following year.

Mackenzie King's government was rocked in 1931 and 1932 by the Beauharnois scandal, which involved allegations that a power company had made contributions of about $700,000 to the Liberal Party — including to two senators — in exchange for permission to divert the St. Lawrence River to a hydroelectricity plant.

It wasn't until 1974 that Parliament made its first major attempt to reform electoral financing with the enactment of the Election Expenses Act. The new law included election expense limits for candidates and parties, and disclosure requirements, which were fully endorsed by a 1992 Royal Commission on electoral reform and party financing.

In 2000, the legislation was changed to allow third parties to register and spend limited amounts of money on election advertising. Stephen Harper, then president of the National Citizens Coalition, launched a constitutional challenge of the spending limits on the grounds they infringed on the Charter right of freedom of expression. The Supreme Court of Canada ruled those limits passed the test of reasonableness.

Other changes since 2004 include a ban on corporate and union contributions, quarterly allowances to political parties based on their electoral success in the last election, and limits and reporting requirements for party leadership campaigns.

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