The liberal leadership candidate Ruby Dhalla is denying any irregularity, since the party retains $ 21,000 in contributions to her campaign.
The funds are carried out while the party investigates whether 12 of Dhalla donors exceeded the maximum contribution amounts.
“When multiple maximum donations are processed in the same credit card, the party approaches these donors directly to confirm that these donations are made on the credit card issued from a joint bank account that the Liberal Party said in a statement to CBC News.
According to the Canadian Electoral Law, couples can make separate donations using the same credit card.
On Tuesday, Elections Canada published the donation data he received from the party during his leadership career so far.
He showed Dhalla behind the field behind the other four contestants, with $ 144,880 accumulated from 109 taxpayers.
However, Elections Canada also published a list of 12 donations in a tab called “declaration of contributions returned to taxpayers or sent to the electoral director.”
Of the 12 names on the list, three pairs share the same last name and postal code. The 12 have $ 1,750 associated with their names, the maximum amount allowed by law.
Dhalla’s campaign says that all documents provided to the party
In an initial statement, Dhalla’s campaign told CBC News that “it could not collect the funds of $ 21,000” and that “taxpayers are required some taxpayers.”
The campaign said the party had sent certification forms to donors and would make a decision “upon receiving paperwork” if you release the money to the Dhalla team or reimburse the taxpayers.
Then, the campaign said it had provided the liberals “all the information requested, including all the necessary documents.”
But in a later email that answers more CBC News questions, the campaign provided multiple explanations for donations.
Dhalla spokesman Jacy Lafontaine said that “six couples donated using the same credit card” and the party did not provide the certification forms required at the time of donation.
“As a result, a certification form was [later] Sent to the six couples to confirm that each donation was made by an individual, “he said.
But Lafontaine also said that the spiker occurred because the donors “errorly used the donation link on the website of the campaign instead of the official liberal party link.”
She said the party required using her site for donations after a certain date, but some donors did not know the change.
“Once this error was identified, the contributions were reimbursed and the donors were subsequently ordered to use the correct link,” he wrote.
The party said that the requirement to complete the certification forms is the standard procedure, and have done so for “each electoral campaign.”
Of the other contestants, Mark Carmy and Frank Baylis had a collaborator that appeared in the same Elections of Canada, and Karina Gould had three.
Dhalla, the party denies the accusations of foreign interference
In a story published Thursday morning, The Globe and Mail reported that the lawyers of the Liberal Party were questioning Dhalla about alleged foreign interference, citing confidential sources.
Both the party and Dhalla deny that this is the case.
“The accusations are shocking, false and completely unfounded,” Lafontaine wrote.
“Dr. Dhalla, a proud Canadian born and raised in Winnipeg, is being unjustly attacked simply by her Indian heritage. This is a deliberate attempt to stain her record and distract real problems that affect Canadians.”
The spokesman of the Liberal Party, Parker Lund, told CBC News in a statement that “none of the questions that are put to the campaign of Dr. Dhalla are related to the interference of a foreign government.”
A former liberal deputy elected for the first time in 2004, Dhalla lost his re -election offer in 2011.
During his years outside Parliament, his social media activity showed that he was active in Indian policy, even by helping the Bharatiya Janata party of Primeen Narendra Modi in the elections of the state legislature in 2017.
He has also repeatedly published on social networks about him and his group, and visited Modi as part of a SIJ delegation in 2022.
However, their positions are prior to the accusations of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in September 2023 that the Modi government has links with the murder of a SIJ activist in British Columbia, and the subsequent frail of the ties between Ottawa and New Delhi .
Modi’s government has denied those accusations.
In a statement to CBC News, Dhalla’s spokesman, Lafontaine, did not directly answer a question about whether his last support for Modi arose during his investigation process for the leadership contest, but said that the candidate’s priority is Canada and Canadians . Its policies and vision are completely focused on putting Canada first. ”
He added that “his inheritance should never be misunderstood as a link with foreign interference. There is absolutely no link with the Modi government: their history and commitment to Canada speak for themselves.”
