Lawyer to file complaint on hundreds of bogus Liberal Party memberships
A Toronto lawyer, Richard Boraks, is preparing to file an official complaint today with Elections Canada, alleging that hundreds of new memberships to the Liberal Party were paid for by leadership campaigns and not by the new members. This is a violation of the most basic rule governing memberships. The question that needs to be asked, though, is whether Richard Boraks' complaint is just the tip of the iceberg.
From the Calgary Sun via National Newswatch:
A Toronto lawyer will file a complaint today over allegations hundreds of new Liberals were improperly signed up across Canada as part of the ongoing leadership race.
Richard Boraks said he will give a list of names of more than 300 members of the Liberal Party of Canada to the RCMP and Elections Canada for investigation.
He was told by campaign insiders the members did not pay their $10 membership fee when they were signed up in recent months.
These insiders made an interesting choice in Richard Boraks. First of all, he is not a Liberal. In the 1980 federal election, he ran for the Progressive Conservatives in the Toronto riding of Trinity. He lost. I haven't been able to figure out if he is a members of the Conservative Party, or if he has dropped out of active politics.
Boraks works as an immigration lawyer, specializing in helping the Portugese community in Toronto:
Liberal MP Mario Silva says dozens of illegal construction workers have gone underground fearing they'll be arrested and deported to Portugal by immigration agents.
Several Portuguese families slated for a news conference yesterday cancelled at the last minute fearing they'll be busted, Silva said.
"We tried to call some and their phones were disconnected," he said. "We don't want these people living underground. It is quite dangerous."
He said an estimated 10,000 illegal construction workers facing deportation should be made a top priority by the Conservatives because of the impact they'll have on the economy. Officials of the Canada Border Services Agency refused to comment on the removals yesterday.
Lawyer Richard Boraks, who handles a number of the deportees, said many are so panicked, they're not showing up for their flights home.
I think this could be significant. For all I know, the insiders pulled Boraks name out of the phone book, but I doubt it. Something as explosive as these alleged membership irregularities would go to someone trusted. Boraks is trusted by the Portugese community.
So what follows is that the irregularities for which Boraks has evidence are focused in the Portugese community.
But if so, why just there? The simple answer is that there is no reason for membership problems to be concentrated in the Portugese community in Toronto. Following that logic, then, means that problem of membership irregularities is of a much larger scale.
Stay tuned.
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Comments
Looking forward to hearing how deep the liberal manure pile really is. Maybe I'd better go get the hip-waders.
As befits the Party of Eddie Haskell, I give you the Liberal Credo...
Hear no evil, see no evil, dump it on some poor shmuck down the food chain.
Posted by: neo at October 5, 2006 10:24 AM
Bogus party memberships?
I offer the following link to Elections Canada as interesting reading.
http://www.elections.ca/content.asp?section=loi&document=fs20&dir=gui&lang=e&textonly=false
Posted by: gimbol at October 5, 2006 11:47 AM
Seems to be a problem with the Lieberals desperate need for increased membership (they must be lonely) but if my memmory serves me right, Brian Mulroney doing something similar and supposidly even bused some drunks in to sign up.
Posted by: Independent Voter at October 5, 2006 12:04 PM
I guess the cliché “the plot thickens” pertains to both dead supporters AND the party’s legal woes. Now if only I could get some of the Liberal strategists and organizers embroiled in this mess to enter my cathartic confessional!
Posted by: Vent Your Lament at October 5, 2006 12:31 PM
OT, but of interest?
"...it demonstrates the sad state of the Liberal party in Quebec, a party which has few members and for the moment is dependent on the cunning of a few paid organizers."
"Cunning"? "of a few paid organizers"?
In support of Kennedy
The riding president for Calgary-Nosehill has written an excellent letter to the Toronto Star, which I reproduce here in full, because he does not provide permalinks on his blog (emphasis is mine):
Many have begun to write Gerard Kennedy off as the next leaders of the Liberal Party as a result of his showing in Quebec. While the showing is not good, it demonstrates the sad state of the Liberal party in Quebec, a party which has few members and for the moment is dependent on the cunning of a few paid organizers. It also demonstrates the unwillingness of Mr. Kennedy's campaign to engage in this unseemly process. This is actually a good thing. Nationally, Mr. Kennedy was second in the popular vote. Quebec, despite its massive number of delegate positions, had little impact because of exceptionally low turnout. The Liberal Party needs to rebuild. Gerard Kennedy wants to rebuild. He is not bound by the old organizers who both controlled the Quebec vote and showed their inability to mobilize voters on a large scale. And unlike some of the others, his allies will not prevent him from rebuilding to maintain their own power.
werner patels
Posted by: maz2 at October 5, 2006 06:03 PM
What's new? Flashback: Librano$ raked in $300,000+ in B.C.; Easy.
Tyee called it right. ...-
A Victory That Sowed Defeat
excerpt:
Mass membership sign-ups
One of the keys to taking over the federal Liberal Party in British Columbia was the use of mass membership sign-ups.
The party's growth was nothing short of remarkable.
In 2001, there were about 4,000 federal Liberal members in B.C. By January 2004, that number had rocketed to more than 37,000, primarily through new memberships sold in the South Asian community. At $10 per adult member, the Liberals raked in over $300,000.
In Herb Dhaliwal's Vancouver South-Burnaby riding, the membership jumped from about 500 to a whopping 5,000.
At the time, former Vancouver Quadra Liberal membership chair David McCann openly questioned the source of the membership fees.
"It's pretty straightforward - where did the money come from?" McCann told The Province on January 8, 2004, calling for an investigation.
Shinder Purewal, then the pro-Martin candidate in the riding, called questions about the membership money "irresponsible speculation" at the time.
But it was far too late for Chretien's supporters to complain - Chretien had announced in August 2002 that he would not run for re-election and on November 14, 2003, Paul Martin overwhelmingly won the leadership convention vote in Toronto.
The battle for control of the Liberal Party, in B.C. and across the country, had been decisively won.
But the cost of that internal Liberal war was then still to be determined. And now, every indication is that on January 23, 2006 the price of that victory will be the end of the Liberals' 13 years in power and of Paul Martin's political career. ...-
http://thetyee.ca/Views/2006/01/18/VictorySowedDefeat/
Posted by: maz2 at October 5, 2006 06:49 PM
I wonder if the courts jurisdiction extends into the afterlife. In any event they are going to need a lot of warrants to dig up all those members no longer in this world.
Everytime a politician/party of any stripe does this it is a direct attack democracy, I'd bet we would all be outraged if we weren't so numb
Posted by: nissing link at October 5, 2006 07:31 PM
I hope I am wrong, but I don't think the average voter in Toronto gives two hoots. I lived in Toronto and I don't even remember what street Ontario is on. It's as though Morality and Canadians live in different dimensions.
sad!
Posted by: melwilde at October 5, 2006 10:43 PM
Aunty-Americans accusing Aunty-Americans of Aunty-Americanism accusing Aunty-Am....
Police Probe Libs.... LOL
Damn those Liberals. I hate them.
Taliban Jack/NDP is jubilating/bloviating: the left liberals are his. ...-
National newswatch:
'DIRTY TRICKS' BEHIND PROBE OF LIBERALS
Liberal party officials are accusing rivals of U.S.-style dirty politics as a police probe gets underway over allegations hundreds of new party members were improperly signed up across Canada.
BALLOTS FOR LIBERAL LEADERSHIP BEING RECOUNTED
According to three different leadership camps, the recount started Thursday afternoon after it was discovered that party officials in Quebec had incorrectly rejected blank ballots or those cast for candidates who've dropped out of the contest
Posted by: maz2 at October 6, 2006 06:03 AM
Odd how this country can lean on, and shut down, in an awful hurry, any little BS operation cooked up by some young pot-smoking punk...but for some other reason, we seem to be victimized by a succession of corrupt governments feeding off the people, with the aid and blessings of the police force and civil service. The less these fucks do, the more money they run off with, be it the Police Chief with the town's credit cards, to ex-Prime Minister Gene Crouton. How lucky they are, to live in such a peaceful country, cloaking themselves with laws and freedom of information acts....
Posted by: Feldwebel Wolfenstool at October 6, 2006 09:49 AM
All you lefties,
Bring on the Mulroney smears. He was responsible for the rise of Reform, the Bloc and Chretiens election.
He aint no friend of most conservatives and not trusted by many either.
Independent Voter, you need to work on some smears that mean something.
enough
Posted by: enough at October 6, 2006 12:38 PM
Mulroney is a politician. No winning politician is pure and neither are you or I.
However, Mulroney has done Canada a lot of good and he has been awarded and rewarded in public appreciation events for his contributions. = TG
Posted by: TonyGuitar at October 6, 2006 09:21 PM
Everytime a politician/party of any stripe does this it is a direct attack democracy, I'd bet we would all be outraged if we weren't so numb
Posted by: nissing link at October 5, 2006
Missing Link said it! We are numb!
Otherwise, how do you explain no public marches on capitol hill for repayment of stolen public monies by the Librano$
Elections Canada made payouts to the various political parties.
Payment to the Liberals was in excess of two Million$. What part of that money will the Librano$ party use to pay down their debt to the Canadian taxpayer? = TG
Posted by: TonyGuitar at October 6, 2006 09:30 PM
Commie Bob, the uber candidate with no pre-existing Liberal taint just stepped in it bigtime.
Think he'll get "volperised" for 20,000 smackers?
Posted by: neo at October 6, 2006 11:16 PM
Hey, you don't want to miss the rollout of "Anybody but Iggy, the sequel".
Another former Liberal cabinet minister, Lloyd Axworthy, has crawled out from the dark, damp basement of obscurity to gorge on the flesh of a Liberal leadership candidate.
Posted by: neo at October 7, 2006 05:18 PM
 
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