Tories disclose details of HQ raid to select media

CTV.ca News Staff Mon. Apr. 21 2008

Court documents detailing why Elections Canada officers raided the Conservative party's headquarters last week are expected to be officially released Monday, a day after an attempt by the Tories to preemptively manage the controversy. On Sunday, the Conservatives held secret meetings with select reporters to give their side of the story. The party showed CTV News the court application for a search warrant, which confirmed that Elections Canada officials and RCMP were looking for evidence of an "alleged scheme" by Tories to spend more than allowed on election advertising. The document alleges the Conservatives violated the Elections Act "by incurring election expenses that exceeded the election expense spending limit" by $1.1 million.

It also alleges that 67 Tory candidates "improperly" sought taxpayer-funded rebates on expenses they did not incur. An Ontario judge ordered the application to be unsealed last Friday, but court officials had said they would be unable to make the document public until Monday at the earliest. Conservatives obtained their own copy of the application and contacted a limited number of journalists to discuss the search warrant Sunday.

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Don Quixote Note: Postings of Local M.P.s involved can be found at Mayes campaign questioned ad money and Minority possible, PM says