EC已经输了,它还要搞啥呢?
http://www.barrheadleader.com/artic...nior-conservative-officials&template=barcpart
Elections Canada charges four senior Conservative officials
Feb 24, 2011 06:00 am | The Canadian Press
An unidentified man opens the door for a plainclothes RCMP officer at the Conservative Party Headquarters of Canada in Ottawa on April 15, 2008 during an RCMP raid. Elections Canada has charged the Conservative party and four senior party officials with violating election laws during the 2006 vote. THE CANADIAN PRESS/ Tom Hanson
TORONTO - Elections Canada has upped the ante in a long running feud with the Conservative party over election spending, charging several Tories including a Harper insider with violating election laws during the 2006 vote.
Those charged include Senator Doug Finley, a confidant of Prime Minister Stephen Harper and an architect of his recent election campaigns.
Charges were also filed on Wednesday against the party and officials Irving Gerstein, also a senator, Michael Donnison and Susan Kehoe, a Conservative source told The Canadian Press late Thursday.
"We will vigorously defend," the source said.
Elections Canada was not immediately available to confirm or comment on the charges. It was unclear when the case was to go to court.
The agency has alleged in the past that $1.3 million in national advertising was improperly reported as a shared expense by 67 Conservative candidates.
The agency contended the scheme allowed the party to exceed its spending limit and the candidates to claim rebates on expenses they hadn't actually incurred.
The Elections Act charges are the latest salvo in a long running battle between the elections watchdog and the Conservatives over the spending arrangement, which has become known as the in-and-out case.
Two of the candidates involved in the case launched a civil lawsuit against Elections Canada and won. Both the agency and the Tory party, for different reasons, have appealed that ruling.
The Tories are trying to strike down a little-noticed section of the judgment that would mean up to 10 candidates _ including Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon, Natural Resources Minister Christian Paradis, Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Josee Verner and former minister Maxime Bernier _ exceeded their campaign spending limits in 2006.
If the ruling is allowed to stand, the four sitting Tories and up to six former candidates could face Elections Act charges. If convicted, they could be barred from running again or even be barred from sitting in the House of Commons, much less cabinet.
A Conservative source expressed dismay that the agency filed the charges against the officials before the appeal was heard.
"We're disappointed that Elections Canada filed these administrative charges after losing in Federal Court and not waiting for the Appeal Court decision that matter," the source said.
The charges came after the commissioner of elections, William Corbett, conducted a lengthy separate investigation into the in-and-out transactions. In June, 2009, Corbett recommended to the federal director of public prosecutions that charges be laid in the matter.
Elections Canada is also alleging the Conservatives failed to properly report the cost of running two regional campaign offices in Quebec.
The agency said the $107,000 tab was divvied up and claimed as a shared expense by 15 candidates in Montreal and Quebec City. They claimed the expense even though Elections Canada found many candidates never used the regional offices, which were staffed by central party workers involved in what appear to have been national campaign activities.
The party complied ``under protest'' with a demand that it file a revised campaign financial return, but has challenged the watchdog's order in court.
