Ruby Dhalla kicked out of Liberal leadership race: source | CBC News
A Liberal Party of Canada committee has voted unanimously to disqualify former MP Ruby Dhalla from the race to be the next leader, according to a source.
That source, who was not authorized to speak on the record, said a special joint committee met and voted Friday afternoon to remove Dhalla for violating the race’s rules.
She faced 12 allegations, including accepting donations from a corporation in the form of payments to campaign staff, the source said.
Dhalla was accused of failing to disclose the involvement of a non-Canadian citizen in her campaign, which the party alleges would amount to foreign interference if it happened during an election period.
At the start of the high-stakes committee meeting, Dhalla presented her case to the members and denied any wrongdoing, said the source.
Dhalla, who can appeal the decision under the party’s rules, repeated her stance on social media Friday afternoon.
“I will not allow my campaign to be tarred with baseless allegations of foreign interference because of my Indian heritage and being the daughter of an immigrant,” she posted.
In my campaign, there have been thousands of volunteers from all over Canada who have wanted to be a part of history, of having the first woman of colour as Canada’s next Prime Minister and Leader of the Liberal Party.
I will not allow my campaign to be tarred with baseless…
She called the allegations against her “fabricated, fictitious and fake.”
Liberal Party was investigating alleged donation irregularities
On Thursday, the party confirmed it was withholding $21,000 in contributions to her campaign as it investigated whether 12 donors surpassed maximum contribution amounts.
The probe came after Elections Canada published the donation data it received from the candidates up until Feb. 9. The data showed 12 donations under a tab called “Statement of Contributions returned to Contributors or Remitted to the Chief Electoral Officer.”
Of the 12 names on the list, three pairs share the same last name and postal code. All 12 are recorded as donating $1,750, the maximum amount permissible by law.
“When multiple maximum donations are processed on the same credit card, the party reaches out to those donors directly to confirm that these donations were made on the credit card issued from a joint bank account held in the names of both co-donors,” the Liberal Party said in a statement to CBC News Thursday.
Under Canadian election law, couples are allowed to make separate donations using the same credit card.
On Thursday, Dhalla campaign spokesperson Jacy Lafontaine said that “six couples donated using the same credit card” and the party did not provide the required attestation forms at the time of donation.
Dhalla billed herself as a true outsider in the race to replace Prime Minster Justin Trudeau and pitched policies that broke with current Liberal doctrine.
Among them are promises to deport illegal immigrants and impose life sentences for possession of hard drugs. Dhalla has also called for an “economic czar” to identify waste and overspending and a new “health czar” to review the health-care system.
She had met the party’s steep entry fee of $350,000, a requirement to gain a spot in the official debates next week.
The Paul Martin-era Liberal MP had asked for and was denied an interpreter for Monday’s French-language debate.
Last month, Nepean MP Chandra Arya said he had been informed by the party that he wasn’t permitted to run.
The remaining candidates are former MP Frank Baylis, former central banker Mark Carney, former finance minister Chrystia Freeland and former House leader Karina Gould.
