French prosecution “beyond unusual,” lawyer says
Phil Horgan
By Kate Harries AWARE News Network
Former Springwater mayor Bill French faces a very novel prosecution on 10 charges relating to his 2014 campaign finance statement, his lawyer told a crowd of French supporters yesterday.
The novelty, Phil Horgan explained, is that the prosecutor’s bills are being paid by Springwater Township, but he doesn’t get instructions from the township. In fact, he gets instructions from no one.
“This is beyond unusual, I will be arguing that it is illegal,” Horgan said.
He spoke outside a Barrie courtroom, where the matter had been briefly addressed before being put over to March 28, 2019 for pretrial.
The issue is that Kingston lawyer Tony Fleming was appointed by the Springwater-Oro-Medonte compliance audit committee – made up of Robert Barlow and George Wodoslawsky of Oro-Medonte and Colin McLarty of Springwater –which saw its term expire on November 30 2018.
And while Fleming is paid by the township, he’s not instructed by the township, because that would be a breach of a “wall” that’s supposed to guard against political influence relating to compliance with campaign rules.
“His discretion is not fettered by some existing committee or higher authority,” Horgan said of Fleming. “According to his position, he is the guy who makes the decisions.”
During yesterday’s hearing, Horgan also asked for further disclosure from the prosecution. He said he wants to see committee members’ notes, which he likened to a police officer’s notes, as well as the minutes of in-camera meetings.
He told supporters he plans to examine issues relating to the role played by committee members, with at least one member appearing to have acted in breach of their commitment to impartiality, as well as jurisdictional problems and the length of time the matter has taken so far – more than four years since the end of the 2014 election campaign.
Normal practice is for campaign finance statements to be filed within six months, at which point any elector has 30 days to file a complaint (the complainant in this case, Dan McLean, filed on the last day), and there are then a series of tight deadlines for the committee to hold a hearing, decide on whether to order an audit, and then decide on whether to prosecute.
But the deadlines were derailed by the committee’s refusal to accept the initial audit and its decision to order a second, “forensic” audit. That marked the start of a legal saga that resulted in the matter dragging on until past the 2018 mayoral election – which French lost to deputy mayor Don Allen by 82 votes.
The 10 charges against French each carry a maximum penalty of $25,000. They involve a total of under $1,100 dollars in expenses that still left him $5,000 under his $21,000 spending limit. “It was not that he didn’t report them (the $1,100 expenses) but he didn’t report them properly,” Horgan said.
Several in the crowd expressed displeasure at the cost to the township – in the order of $300,000 so far. “It’s our money,” one man said.
Without any constraint on what the township will pay, “it’s almost like there’s this vat of resources available to the prosecution,” Horgan said.
But, he said, if the township cut off the money, the likelihood is that the matter would end. “The private prosecutor isn’t going to be doing this for fun.”
Around 20 supporters attended yesterday’s proceedings. Among them was Dump Site 41 campaigner Stephen Ogden. Also in court were Springwater Deputy Mayor Jennifer Coughlin and former Springwater councillor Rick Webster.
Kate Harries is a member of the Committee for Justice for Bill French.
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