Yesterday’s bizarre spectacle (as reported by MSM) of the CPC giving only certain members of the media an advanced briefing on the contents of the Elections Canada warrant, and then escaping down the fire stairway to avoid others, is not likely to help further the Conservatives’ case in the court of public opinion.
However, there are still a few lingering questions that need to be answered honestly, and without spin from either side:
1. Did the CPC comply with all documentation requests from Elections Canada or not? If the latter, then let’s see the evidence. EC should be able to demonstrate exactly which requests went unanswered. If the former, then the ‘raid’ on Conservative HQ looks very suspect – especially in view of the civil suit launched by the CPC against EC.
The Star reports that “the Conservatives insist they have done nothing wrong and say they were taken aback at the raid last week because they have complied with all requests to turn over documents.”
But in the affidavit, Lamothe alleges the federal Conservatives embarked on a deliberate strategy to thwart election financing laws – and the party’s spending limits – and to claim $700,000 in rebates for advertising expenses to which local candidates were not entitled.
Lamothe sought hard-copy and electronic copies of correspondence, emails, invoices, accounting records and other documents that would outline discussions between Conservative officials and its media production and buying agencies Retail Media, Yield or Yield Integrated, Republic Publicité + Design Inc.
2. Did EC cart away documentation from the civil case or not? There are conflicting reports. If so, why?
Investigators lined 16 or 18 people up along a hallway, one party official said, “like we were going to shoot back? I mean they had … unfettered access to every single thing in Conservative party headquarters. They removed 17 boxes of material specific to our lawsuit, all the background stuff.”
“They took away our tactics and our strategy” for the court case, said the official.
He also said the raid went well beyond the scope of the warrant, with investigators gathering information that had nothing to do with the issue.
“What does my computer and what’s on there about the next campaign strategy, the next platform, the next ad campaign, and everything else, what the hell has that got to do with Elections Canada?” another official said.
“This is absolutely over the top.”
Much of the seized material is likely to be the subject of legal arguments over whether it is subject to solicitor-client privilege.
3. Who tipped off the CBC (and likely the LPC) about the RCMP ‘raid’? Why?
One thing for sure. Nobody’s going to come out smelling sweet on this one.
* * * *
Update: Oh-oh!
Somebody’s nose must be out of joint (via
Kady O’Malley):
…I can confirm that macleans.ca was most emphatically not welcome on the voyage. However, being unable to take a hint, we wound up hanging out in the hallway outside the backup briefing room – hastily arranged after word of the first meeting was leaked – with various other uninvited media guests: CBC, Canadian Press, and the Halifax Chronicle Herald and CanWest News, which had, in fact, originally been on the list, but was abruptly disinvited when the Conservatives realized who had been sent to cover the story…
Now I wonder who that could have been?
More sour grapes here.
Also, please check out Peter Csillag’s excellent post – Don’t read the MSM lips, no new election over RCMP raids.
Sandy has a great post here – Communications 101 for the Conservative Party.
Trusty Tory wants to go on the offensive – Where’s the counter attack??
Blog Chill
Is there a code of Blogging ethics and liability somewhere? From the Star Phoenix:
Two questions here. First of all, does this mean all bloggers can get into trouble if they link to stories on other blogs that turn out not to be true?
Secondly, in the case of the National Post, they are being sued in spite of a retraction and apology, supposedly because the story was picked up all over the internet. Personally, I just don’t see how a story can be contained in this day and age.
And should it be?
In any case, some of my readers have questioned my apparently heavy-handed comment moderation policy lately.
The reason should now be crystal clear.