Election compliance committee votes against legal action for ex-councillor’s campaign spending

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Ottawa’s election compliance committee has voted not to commence legal proceedings against former Osgoode councillor Doug Thompson over election finances, including undervaluing used election signs from a previous election.

Thompson said he had used a placeholder value for $100 for the signs used in the 2022 municipal election and his team intended to update that figure. The actual cost, $244.60, was independently verified by an independent auditor.

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Other matters in the audit included a campaign donation from Thompson’s wife that had been misclassified, bank charges that had been overstated by $34.05 and miscellaneous purchases that were understated by $5.91, as well as a receipt for $21.95 that was missing from the records.

Thompson acknowledged the errors and the importance of accurate reporting. However, he claimed the errors were minor compared to his overall campaign budget of $18,701.13 — just 1.1 per cent of total expenses, according to a statement from his lawyer, Stéphane Émard-Chabot.

“Mr. Thompson claims that these errors did not significantly affect the integrity of the campaign’s financial statements because he was never close to exceeding the statutory spending limit,” Émard-Chabot’s statement said.

“Regarding the nature of the mistakes, these errors, individually or as an aggregate, do not pass the quantitative or qualitative thresholds of ‘materiality’ because the errors would not objectively lead someone to question the overall validity or reliability of Mr. Thompson’s filings.”

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John Pappas, a lawyer for retired developer Edward (Ted) Phillips, who made the complaint against Thompson, argued that legal proceedings should be used to serve the public interest and the integrity and accountability underpinnings of the finance regime under the Municipal Elections Act, as well as the importance of the committee’s role in ensuring the integrity of elections.

Proper record-keeping is crucial to transparency and elector confidence, Pappas argued.

In its decision, the committee said it had carefully considered the nature of the apparent contraventions against the cost associated with legal proceedings to the public and Thompson. Weighing these factors, the public interest was best served by not going ahead with legal action, the committee decided.

Thompson has been under intense public scrutiny, the committee’s decision said. The audit itself and the procedures leading up to it “have served the public interest sufficiently” and the mistakes on the election financial statement have been scrutinized by the public, the auditor and the committee, the decision said.

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Had the violations been of the sort that could, in the eyes of a reasonable member of the public, have affected the integrity of the election process, the committee said its decision might have been different.

“This was not the case.”

Thompson had been a city councillor for 14 years and was previously mayor of the former Osgoode township. He retired from politics in 2014 and was succeeded as councillor by George Darouze. Thompson ran again as a candidate in Osgoode ward in 2022, but lost to Darouze in a close race.

Despite Thompson’s years of experience in municipal politics, “he demonstrated a lack of the sort of care and meticulousness expected from someone of his standing,” Pappas’ submission said. “Any suggestions that these errors were merely inadvertent, is belied by Mr. Thompson’s lengthy experience.”

Pappas also argued that the committee should consider deterrence.

“Allowing Mr. Thompson to evade accountability after this long career would undermine public trust and set a dangerous precedent.”

In an interview Tuesday, Thompson said the past 14 months had been “a torment,” and he had to pay the cost of legal representation.

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“All of these things were extremely minor. I appreciate the fact that there were mistakes, but they were so minor it was hard to fathom,” he said.

Thompson said he was concerned that attention on the audit could dissuade potential candidates from running for political office.

“Your integrity is very important. Over the years I have built a reputation. It was very important for me to get this cleared up,” he said.

The election compliance committee had voted in favour of audits of the campaign expenses of Thompson and Horizon Ottawa in August 2023. The application to audit their election expenses was filed in June 2023 by Phillips, a former Taggart executive, who was represented by Pappas.

Both Horizon Ottawa and Thompson had expressed opposition to Tewin, a controversial 445-hectare satellite community near Carlsbad Springs proposed through a partnership between the Algonquins of Ontario and Taggart Investments. The proposal was adopted into the city’s official plan in 2021 by Ottawa’s previous council.

In response to questions from the Ottawa Citizen last year, Pappas said Phillips was a former executive with Taggart, “but has been retired for three years.” The applications were filed in Phillips’ personal capacity, Pappas said.

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The committee’s decision on Thompson came only weeks after it voted to refer Horizon Ottawa’s election filings to a prosecutor for apparently violating campaign finance rules. An independent auditor found that Horizon Ottawa, which registered as a third-party advertiser for the 2022 municipal election, collected ineligible contributions and that its financial records were insufficient.

At issue were several expenses related to HorizonFest, a September 2022 pre-election rally that were incurred before Horizon Ottawa had registered as a third-party advertiser on Aug. 24. Those expenses included three phone credit invoices for $517.24, a $300 liquor licence for the event and an $80 tarp purchased a few days before Horizon registered. A jar at HorizonFest collected $448.15 in donations.

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