MPs’ robocalls defence costs paid by taxpayers
The House of Commons paid a sixfigure legal bill incurred by a group of Conservative MPs named in an unsuccessful legal challenge of the 2011 election results based on misleading robocalls.
Sources say that the House’s secretive Board of Internal Economy agreed to approve payments for fees incurred by at least six MPs who were named as respondents in the Federal Court challenge, which was backed by the Council of Canadians, an advocacy group.
The court in 2013 had ordered the council to pay the MPs $13,206 — just a small share of the $355,907 their lawyer, Arthur Hamilton, had sought to recover.
At the time, it was thought the Conservative party would pay for the remainder of MPs’ legal bills, but it now appears the House stepped in and paid at least part of it with taxpayers’ money.
In a May 2013 ruling, Judge Richard Mosley rejected the council’s application to have the election results tossed out in six ridings but still found evidence of electoral fraud during the campaign. He did not find any one party responsible but pointed to the use of the Conservative party’s voter-contact database in misleading pre-recorded “robocalls” made to voters.
A former Conservative campaign worker, Michael Sona, was convicted last year for his role in deceptive robocalls sent to voters in Guelph on election day. He is currently appealing the conviction and his nine-month jail sentence.
The exact amount the House paid to Hamilton’s firm, Cassels Brock, isn’t known. In June 2013, Hamilton asked the court to order costs of $355,907, which included 577 billable hours of work performed by Hamilton and two colleagues. That was a fraction of the true costs, he told the court. Hamilton charged $500 per hour, according to documents submitted in court.
Included in the costs was $166,363 to pay for expert witnesses brought in to provide evidence during the week-long hearing. It is unclear if the board agreed that the House should pay those costs, too.
During the trial, Mosley assailed the respondents’ legal tactics, accusing them of dragging out the litigation with legal “trench warfare.”
Hamilton could not be reached for comment this week.
The House of Commons would not confirm the payment and a spokesperson referred inquiries about it to the published minutes of the board meetings.
The minutes are too vague to determine how much taxpayers’ money was paid, to whom or for what reason. They cite at least one case involving a request to pay legal bills incurred by more than one MP, but do not say which ones or the nature of the case. The amount paid is also not disclosed.
The Council of Canadians’ legal challenge argued that misleading live and prerecorded calls changed the election outcome in six closely fought ridings, represented by Conservative MPs Kelly Block, John Duncan, Jay Aspin, Joyce Bateman, Lawrence Toet and Ryan Leef.
Toet, a Manitoba MP, confirmed this week that the House has paid his legal fees. “The House paid for that because it was a House expense,” he said. He was unable to remember the amount paid.
Bateman said she would check and follow up with a response but did not. The other MPs named in the legal action did not respond either.
The board minutes from June 2013 said: “The Board approved in principle the payment of legal fees of Members in a complaint but requested that the Law Clerk and Parliamentary Counsel make a thorough review of the legal fees to be charged in this matter, and report back to the Board in the fall.”
Then, in February 2014, “The Board approved the payment of legal fees in a complaint.”
It is unclear if this was the robocalls case.