Elections Canada explains charges against senators Doug Finley and Irving Gerstein
Four senior Conservative campaign officials face maximum fines of $2,000 and one year in prison if they're found guilty of violating the Canada Elections Act.
In a statement issued today (February 25), Elections Canada announced that Conservative Senator Doug Finlay, Conservative Senator Irving Gerstein, Michael Donison, and Susan J. Kehoe have each been charged with wilfully exceeding the federal party spending limit of $18,278,278.64 in the 2006 federal election.
Finlay was the party's campaign manager and Gerstein was a major fundraiser. Donison and Kehoe worked as party staffers during the 2006 campaign. Elections Canada alleges that the Conservatives overspent their limit by $1.3 million by transferring advertising costs to local campaigns.
In addition, Gerstein has been charged with filing a "materially false or misleading statement".
The Conservative Fund of Canada and the Conservative Party of Canada have also been charged wilfully exceeding the federal party spending limit, and face maximum fines of $25,000 if convicted.
The Conservative Fund of Canada faces an additional charge of filing a false statement.
Their first court appearance is scheduled on March 18 in Ottawa.
Comments
3 Comments
Brad Chee
Feb 25, 2011 at 10:55am
Crooked politicians?I What's the world coming to??
John R
Feb 25, 2011 at 12:33pm
Elections Kanada is nothing but a gaggle of hopelessly biased liberal ideologues, playing fast and loose with ;if not breaking; the laws of a modern democracy, and who are on a perpetual witch hunt trying to damage the CPOC...which of course describes half of the so-called "official Ottawa" establishment left termite mound, all trying to protect their 'collective' rice bowl.
Enemies of the average Canadian.
glen p robbins
Feb 26, 2011 at 1:55pm
The Conservative Party position is that this is a difference of opinion on the accounting of the monies. The low fine of $2,000 personal and only $25,000 for party suggests politics is creeping into law - this isn't new in Canada. The separation of politics and the courts is represented as well defined - it isn't, not by any stretch.
Its my opinion that the Courts are closely tied to the bureaucracy as the actors in both (government - lawyers) benefit from this relationship. Try and determine which government ministry is most annoyed with the Conservatives and I suspect you will see the real cause of this issue.
Glen P. Robbins is not a lawyer, he is a lawyer - political hunter.