Rejected NDP leadership candidate sues party in bid to enter contest
TORONTO — A federal New Democrat is calling on the courts to order the party to let him run in its contest to replace Tom Mulcair as leader, court filings show.
In his application to Ontario Superior Court slated to be heard on Tuesday, Brian Graff accuses the party of violating its own rules when it repeatedly disallowed his candidacy.
The party, however, maintains it would be “extraordinary and unprecedented” for the court to decide whether Graff would be a suitable entrant.
“It would be inconsistent with democratic values and inappropriate for the judiciary to enter the political arena as the arbiter of who is suited to seek the leadership,” the party argues in court filings.
Graff, 58, who ran unsuccessfully for a Toronto council seat in 2014, was a Liberal activist for most of his adult life. He became disillusioned with the Liberals after Justin Trudeau came to office in 2015. He joined the New Democrats in August last year.
“While he is a relatively new member of the NDP with some ideas that challenge party orthodoxy, Mr. Graff meets all candidacy requirements in the NDP’s leadership rules,” his court application states.
“Yet the NDP — specifically, executive director Robert Fox and four party officers serving as an appeal committee — has now twice rejected Mr. Graff ’s candidacy.”
Graff maintains the party relied on “vague and highly subjective” factors in barring him from the race, which he first tried to enter in October.
Those factors include whether a candidate’s actions, beliefs or attitude could hurt the NDP’s reputation.
The party initially rejected Graff without saying why. Graff then asked the courts to get involved, but abandoned the action after the NDP agreed to take another look at the situation, and provided him with Fox’s internal emails regarding his candidacy.
Among other things, the emails note Graff’s “history of litigious behaviour” and previous criticism of the NDP, the court filings show.
“We can anticipate Brian will protest his rejection which also entails some risk,” Fox wrote. “But I’m inclined to think the short-term hit is much less potentially damaging than his continued participation in the race.”
What was not in the emails, the filings state, was any reference to the fact that Graff received a conditional discharge in 1993 for a non-violent offence involving criminal harassment of a woman.