Liberals, Tories refund Conrad Black donation
Temporary residents can’t give to parties
OTTAWA • Canada’s federal Liberals and Conservatives are returning donations from former media baron Conrad Black that violated rules against foreign contributions to political parties.
The parties confirmed Friday they would return the money even as the New Democratic Party filed an official complaint with the elections commissioner over the donations. Meanwhile, the fact the parties did not return the donations to Black until attention was called to them is raising questions about how effectively Canada’s electoral system can prevent foreign money from influencing its politics.
Under Canadian law, only citizens and permanent residents can make political donations. Black — the founder of the National Post and still a contributor to its Comment section — renounced his Canadian citizenship in 2001 after then-prime minister Jean Chrétien prevented him from accepting a peerage appointment from the United Kingdom. While he currently lives in Toronto, his citizenship status is that of a temporary resident.
“It’s not like a name like Mr. Black’s would be unrecognizable to those parties or to their fundraisers as being somebody who very publicly renounced his citizenship,” NDP ethics critic Nathan Cullen said Friday. “If this highprofile non-Canadian can make this kind of donation to these parties without raising any red flags, we might need greater scrutiny over all the donations made to them.”
On Thursday, Cullen wrote to the Commissioner of Canada Elections, Yves Côté, asking for a formal investigation of the donations after PressProgress, a website run by the progressive Broadbent Institute, published an article about Black’s 2015 donation to the Liberal Party, which it discovered in a database of political donations the National Post has created for public use. Cullen’s letter said he believes the donations consisted of a “possible breach” of the law. According to Michelle Laliberté, a spokeswoman for Côté, “the Commissioner reviews all complaints received by the Office.”
Elections Canada spokesman Pierre-Luc Poisson confirmed two contributions were made under Black’s name — $1,500 to the Liberal Party on May 15, 2015 and $1,550, the maximum donation, to the Conservative leadership campaign of Maxime Bernier on April 10, 2017.
“I would never make a political contribution to anyone that I had a reason to believe was in any respect inappropriate,” Black said in a statement to the Post Friday.
Black, who confirmed he was a temporary resident at the time of both donations, explained both as likely “inadvertently made” via his attendance at functions held in honour of then-aspiring prime minister Justin Trudeau and then-aspiring leader Bernier. In the first instance, “the host at the occasion had the requested amount on the invitation and I was not aware that it was a contribution to the Liberal Party itself,” Black said. In the second instance, he said, “I may have paid part of the cost of having a luncheon for a few people at a club where Maxime Bernier was a guest.” Black said he was “not aware” of having paid anything to a Canadian political party for many years. “I do not myself send out cheques or money transfers,” he said, adding that his office is “entirely responsive” to any detailed inquiries it receives.
Illegal contributions “must be returned within 30 days of (the recipient) becoming aware that it is ineligible,” Poisson said. Political party officials and financial agents “must not knowingly accept a contribution that is ineligible — they must do their due diligence when accepting a contribution,” he said. That due diligence can mean “simply asking the individual” or “requiring proof,” Poisson explained, but he said Elections Canada itself does not verify the citizenship of contributors.
Liberal Party spokesman Braeden Caley said his party “fully complies” with all rules and regulations for political financing. “Given what has been publicly reported about Mr. Black’s citizenship status at the time of this contribution three years ago, the Liberal Party of Canada has acted to refund the contribution, in accordance with Elections Canada’s requirements,” he told the Post. Asked when the party took such action regarding the 2015 donation, Caley said it had been “this week.”
“Obviously only Canadians that are citizens or permanent residents can donate as we state on our donate page. The refund for this donation will be reflected in the next appropriate report from Elections Canada,” said Conservative Party spokesman Cory Hann. “Once we were made aware of his citizenship status, and the fact he’s neither a citizen nor a permanent resident, we moved to refund the donation.”
I WAS NOT AWARE THAT IT WAS A CONTRIBUTION TO THE LIBERAL PARTY.