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The RCMP said Friday that the force will not lay charges after conducting a probe into potential voter identity fraud in the 2017 United Conservative Party leadership race, which resulted in former premier Jason Kenney being elected leader.
“Normally we would not provide an update on an investigation that doesn’t result in charges,” Superintendent Rick Jane told reporters in a press briefing. He said the situation was unusual because it relates to voting and democracy.
Kenney won the UCP’s first leadership race in 2017. His competitors raised questions about the integrity of the voting system, but said their concerns were addressed by the time Kenney was named the victor.
The RCMP said it received a complaint about the race in February 2019 and a five-year investigation included hundreds of interviews, 65 investigators, and more than $460,000 in overtime and travel expenses to B.C., Ontario and Nova Scotia.
More from Globe and Mail reporters Jana G. Pruden and Carrie Tait here.
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TODAY'S HEADLINES
Canada resuming funding to UN aid agency in Gaza: Canada was one of 16 countries that temporarily halted future payments in January to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East after Israel alleged some of its workers participated in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel.
ArriveCan contractor defends its president’s public service work: ArriveCan contractor Dalian Enterprises says its president, David Yeo, became a Department of National Defence employee only last year after work on the app was complete and set up a conflict of interest screen so that he would not be involved in the company’s interactions with his new employer.
Ottawa bans strychnine poison to kill wolves: Ottawa has banned the use of strychnine after animal welfare groups complained the poison has led to the deaths of pet dogs and many other non-target birds and animals, including golden eagles and grizzly bears.
Manitoba government urged to keep promise to search landfill for women’s remains: The families of two slain First Nations women are continuing to press the Manitoba government to search a landfill for their remains.
More local politicians in Quebec report facing harassment, intimidation, survey shows: A survey of hundreds of elected municipal officials across Quebec shows a rise in the past decade in the percentage of politicians who report facing harassment and intimidation.
Biden takes aim at Trump in fiery State of the Union address: In a speech before both houses of Congress Thursday evening, President Joe Biden repeatedly laced into Donald Trump – without naming him – for threatening to abandon America’s NATO allies, appointing Supreme Court justices who overturned abortion rights and inciting the Capitol riot that aimed to reverse his re-election defeat.
Not just a glass ceiling: Working moms on the ‘maternal wall’ that can stall careers: A 2023 report from international non-profit Mothers in Science found one-third of women working in the sciences while raising children had their competence questioned by employers and colleagues after becoming a parent.
THIS AND THAT
The House of Commons is not sitting this week.
THE DECIBEL
On Friday’s episode of The Decibel, Lindsay Jones, The Globe’s Atlantic reporter, talks about investigations into the use of Agent Orange in Canada and the fight for compensation and answers for those exposed to the toxic chemicals.
PRIME MINISTER'S DAY
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was in Montreal on Friday to visit a local textile manufacturing company.
LEADERS
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s schedule was not listed Friday.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh is in Nanaimo, B.C., with MP Lisa Marie Barron (Nanaimo–Ladysmith).
OPINION
Will anyone ever be held to account for China’s infiltration of the Winnipeg microbiology lab? Don’t make me laugh:
“One begins to see what the Trudeau government was so scared of – why it went to such lengths to conceal documents related to the firing of two scientists from the top-security National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg, stonewalling a parliamentary committee and even calling an early election rather than hand them over.” - Andrew Coyne, The Globe and Mail
Saskatchewan’s response to carbon tax reveals how Liberals botched national unity:
“The Saskatchewan government’s refusal to collect and remit the federal carbon tax on natural gas represents a flagrant violation of its legal and federal obligations. No loyal Canadian should support such actions.” - John Ibbitson, The Globe and Mail
Brian Mulroney will always be remembered for his friendship with Ukraine:
“The impact of Mr. Mulroney’s many accomplishments will be felt for generations to come, but for Ukrainian Canadians, his support for Ukraine over his entire political career will be warmly remembered.”- Bob Onyschuk, the founding president of the Canada-Ukraine Chamber of Commerce
The lesson from Ottawa’s latest subsidy fiascos:
“As the old saying goes, the best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second best time is now. That axiom came to mind with the recent news that the federal government had cancelled two much-heralded, but ill-conceived, billion-dollar subsidy programs: the First-Time Home Buyer Incentive Program and the Canada Digital Adoption Program (CDAP).” - Globe Editorial Board
Depriving women of their rights should be a crime against humanity:
“If Canada is serious about its feminist foreign policy, adopting gender apartheid as a crime against humanity would be a great way of acting upon it. It is high time that states like Iran and Afghanistan, which use women’s bodies as ideological playgrounds to write their laws upon, be held to account.” -Samira Mohyeddin, special to The Globe and Mail
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