Conservative leadership race | Disqualification of Patrick Brown: lawyers get involved

(Ottawa) Hostilities are officially launched. On the one hand, the lawyers of the fallen candidate Patrick Brown castigate the “Kafkaesque process” that led to the disqualification of their client, on the other, those of the authorities of the Conservative Party are looking into the validity of the challenge.

Melanie Marquis
The Press

It took less than 24 hours after the Leader’s Election Organizing Committee (LEOC) disqualified Patrick Brown from the Conservative leadership race, citing ‘serious allegations of wrongdoing’ in campaign finance, before that the principal concerned does not carry out his threat: he has retained the services of a law firm to challenge his elimination from the race.

And not just any lawyers: those of the firm Henein Hutchison – and his formidable lawyer Marie Henein, who successfully defended personalities such as former CBC host Jian Ghomeshi and former Vice-Admiral Mark Norman.

“To be clear, Mr. Brown was at no fault. Your refusal to specify the allegations in support of your recommendation demonstrates this. He rejected the derisory information you provided, ”reads a document dated July 6 co-signed by Mr.^e Marie Henein and her colleague M^e Alex Smith.

“This Kafkaesque process has led to a predetermined decision, based on political motives, which is not in accordance with the values ​​that should be upheld by this party”, continues in this missive addressed to Don Nightingale, chairman of the Committee of Call for Dispute Resolution (CARD).

To this letter is added the one sent to Ian Brodie, president of the COEC, in which the duo of lawyers demands that all documents related to the disqualification process – emails, text messages, WhatsApp messages, etc. – is retained.

“He lost a lot of credibility”

The catch is that the 2022 leadership contest rules state, among other things, that “all decisions of the COEC are final and not subject to internal appeal or judicial review.”

Conservative Party Chairman Rob Batherson declined to speculate on the legal implications of this provision.

Former conservative strategist Yan Plante believes that Patrick Brown’s chances of success are slim. “In my opinion, the committee is all-powerful,” he said in an interview.

And in any case, even if he won his case, the candidate could not recover, he argues: “Whether it is proven or whether it is just allegations and that in the end it is rejected, for me, he has lost a lot of credibility, if only by the fact that his name is once again attached to such allegations. »

The denunciation would come from Camp Brown

The Conservative Party leadership candidate is furious at his disqualification. He castigated the decision on all the stands, accusing the formation of maneuvering in order to favor the coronation of Pierre Poilievre, considered the favorite of the race.

However, the denunciation to the authorities of the party came from the Brown camp, affirmed Rob Batherson to The Press. “There is no indication that the information came from any campaign other than Mr. Brown’s,” he said.

A statement issued Thursday evening by the Toronto law firm Loopstra Nixon, on behalf of a former campaign organizer, Debra Jodoin, goes in the same direction. She claims that she would have been paid by a private company.

The commissioner of elections requested

The Office of the Commissioner of Canada Elections confirmed Thursday that it had received the information in connection with this case, without however providing further details on the nature of the documents transmitted to it or confirming that an investigation would indeed be opened.

“The Commissioner of Canada Elections takes every complaint seriously and, where appropriate, conducts a thorough investigation. The duration of an investigation can vary considerably depending on the nature and complexity of a case,” spokesperson Jacinthe Dumont wrote.

The Liberal Party quickly jumped on the case. MP Adam van Koeverden has written to the commissioner calling for an investigation into “allegations of potential financial crimes” in the leadership race.

The next Conservative leader will be elected on September 10.