Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre speaks to cameras during a news conference in Toronto, on July 20.Cole Burston/The Canadian Press
Pierre Poilievre has confirmed that his campaign for leadership of the federal Conservative Party paid the legal expenses of a whistle-blower working on the campaign of rival leadership hopeful Patrick Brown.
At a news conference on Wednesday, Mr. Poilievre said “I did not have those numbers in front of me” when asked about specifics of his campaign’s support for Debra Jodoin, whose allegations of wrongdoing against Mr. Brown became publicly known last summer. Shortly before that, Mr. Brown was disqualified from the leadership race over what the party described as financial irregularities, though it did not confirm at the time that Ms. Jodoin’s complaint was the cause.
Financial returns filed with Elections Canada show Mr. Poilievre’s team paid $37,000 to two law firms that represented Ms. Jodoin. He was elected Conservative Leader this past September.
“Debbie Jodoin is a courageous whistle-blower. She is a widow of a former Canadian Forces member who was speaking up against wrongdoing at great personal peril to herself, and it is entirely appropriate to defend whistle-blowers,” Mr. Poilievre told the news conference, in Timmins, Ont.
“When I am prime minister, we will defend all whistle-blowers,” he said, adding that he would protect their ability to “speak out against wrongdoing without fear that they will be destroyed by legal intimidation coming from those with deep pockets.”
And just like that, the Conservatives made Patrick Brown disappear
During last year’s leadership campaign, Ms. Jodoin said she had informed the Conservative Party that Mr. Brown had encouraged her to work for him even though a private company was paying for her expenses, a violation of federal election laws. Mr. Brown denied the allegation.
The Conservative Party has not responded to questions about the Poilievre campaign’s support for Ms. Jodoin.
After Mr. Brown’s failed leadership bid, he was re-elected mayor of Brampton, Ont. Mr. Brown did not respond to a request for comment, but a representative of his former campaign issued a statement. “Mayor Brown has put party politics behind him and is solely focused on the important work he is doing in the City of Brampton where he was recently re-elected with massive support from the community,” it said.
Chisholm Pothier, a spokesperson for Mr. Brown during his campaign, said in a separate statement that he was not surprised by the situation.
“I stated publicly at the time of Patrick Brown’s disqualification that this looked like collusion between the party and the Poilievre campaign to eliminate the one candidate that would snatch the leadership from the tired establishment’s hands,” he said. “We were pretty sure.”
Donald Bourgeois, a lawyer at Fogler Rubinoff LLP and the author of a textbook on election law, said he has been involved in a number of municipal, provincial and federal campaigns, but had never heard of a campaign paying the expenses of a whistle-blower on another campaign.
Mr. Bourgeois said it was not clear, based on what he had heard, whether or not this was illegal. But he added he would not recommend it.
“It does not strike me as in keeping with the electoral legislation that we have,” he said.
Elections Canada spokesperson Matthew McKenna said in a statement that the Canada Elections Act, which governs federal elections, generally does not say what leadership candidates can and can’t do as they campaign.
“Political parties may set their own rules for how leadership contestants conduct themselves and the types of activity they may engage in as part of their campaign,” he said.
Duff Conacher, co-founder of Democracy Watch, a non-profit that advocates for government accountability, said the organization wants a closer look at the situation and will file a complaint with the Commissioner of Canada Elections, the independent officer responsible for ensuring the Canada Elections Act is complied with and enforced.
Mr. Conacher said, in a statement, that the commissioner should look into whether Ms. Jodoin was paid by anyone associated with Mr. Poilievre’s campaign specifically to find compromising information on Mr. Brown.
“The situation is yet another example of why political parties should not be allowed to run their own leadership contests, and why Elections Canada must be empowered not only to run the contests but also do the audits of all the contestants to ensure the contests are fair and democratic,” Mr. Conacher said.
In a statement, the elections commissioner’s office said its confidentiality provisions do not allow it to confirm whether it has received a complaint or initiated a review or an investigation into a particular issue.