Goldy breached election laws, auditor finds
Faith Goldy, a far-right commentator who has promoted white-supremacy, broke election spending laws during her unsuccessful 2018 run for mayor of Toronto, an auditor has found.
Chartered accountant William Molson, tasked by a city committee with reviewing Goldy’s election expenses after a citizen complaint, made the findings in a report made public Friday.
Compliance audit committee members will review the findings at a Feb. 8 hearing.
They could vote to ask a provincial prosecutor to consider legal action against her for breaching Ontario’s election act in multiple ways alleged in the audit.
Molson cited apparent infractions including:
Failing to report $86,398.49 in campaign-period expenses.
Failing to report $56,117.95 in contributions by non-Ontario residents, who could not legally donate to her mayoral campaign, before the end of 2018.
Accepting and failing to report $12,365.99 after Dec. 31, 2018, without requesting an extension of the legal campaign period.
■ Accepting a total of $101,118 from ineligible donors outside Ontario, after a video appeal to “defenders of democracy worldwide” for donations to fund her legal challenge to force a television station to broadcast her campaign ads.
■ Exceeding by $56,388.63 the maximum of $25,000 that a candidate can donate to their own campaign.
Goldy, who has denied any wrongdoing related to her campaign expenses, “was generally not co-operative in responding to requests for information,” from the auditor, Molson wrote.
That delayed his reporting back to the committee and, in some instances, “it was necessary to rely on the best available information when applying a ‘balance of probabilities’ standard in order to arrive at a reasonable conclusion.”
The audit was triggered by a complaint from Evan Balgord, executive director of the Canadian AntiHate Network and a former staffer of Toronto Mayor John Tory who won re-election in 2018. Goldy finished a distant third.
Balgord told the Star the committee should initiate prosecution against Goldy and make an example of her by seeking the maximum possible punishment.
Possible penalties for breaching the Municipal Election Act include fines of up to $25,000 per offence, a possible prohibition on seeking office in the following two civic elections and, for intentional “corruption,” up to six months in jail. A judge could also waive punishment for offences deemed inadvertent.
Balgord said the audit didn’t answer the question that triggered his complaint — did Goldy mix personal and campaign finances in ways that could enrich her.
The report “raises more questions than that it answers,” because she refused to co-operate, Balgord said. “We need to make sure that, if there are far-right grifters abusing our political process, they don’t get away with it or don’t just get a slap on the wrist.”
Goldy, who in 2017 appeared on a neo-Nazi podcast and two years later was kicked off Facebook over “white nationalist sentiments,” did not respond to a request for comment sent to her LinkedIn account.
At an April 2019 hearing at city hall, she told the compliance audit committee that there was no wrongdoing involving her campaign finances which had been reviewed by auditor she had hired.