SUBSCRIBE & WIN! Sign up for the Daily CHAT News Today Newsletter for a chance to win a $75 South Country Co-op gift card!

Green leadership results tainted by fundraising disaster, candidate says

Sep 30, 2020 | 10:37 AM

OTTAWA — Green leadership candidates are digging into their own fundraising data today after their party acknowledged Tuesday it hadn’t properly forwarded all donations to one candidate.

The Green party says it accidentally kept thousands of dollars in donations that were supposed to go to Glen Murray, leaving him with significantly less money to use for campaigning.

The admission came four days after digital voting began, and four days before the winner is to be announced.

Meryam Haddad, a Montreal immigration lawyer who last week successfully fought a party ruling to expel her from the contest, says this is another in a growing list of mistakes and bad management of the race that  calls into question whether the winner is truly being chosen democratically.

Annamie Paul, who had the highest official fundraising total of the eight leadership contenders as of the end of August, says it is possible the same fundraising mistake happened with other candidates and her campaign team is working with the party to investigate.

Dimitri Lascaris, who was running second in fundraising behind Paul, says he wants more information from the party about what happened but that his team doesn’t think any of his donations didn’t get properly forwarded.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 30, 2020.

The Canadian Press