Ottawa : NDP challenges $1.2-million pamphlet punishment in court

The NDP is fighting back in Federal Court against the June decision by a House of Commons oversight body to force 23 New Democratic MPs to pay back the cost of letters and envelopes deemed overly partisan.

The application, filed July 4, asks the court to “set aside and annul or declare void the decision in its entirety.”

The case is a result of a June 11 finding by the House’s Board of Internal Economy that the NDP used the free parliamentary mailing privileges of its MPs for partisan political purposes.

The cost of the envelopes and letters was around $36,000. The board also asked that the NDP pay the postage costs of the almost two million letters. That could cost $1.13 million.

The court document says that the NDP wants the court to kill the repayment order and order any other remedy, including a declaratory judgment — effectively asking the court to give its opinion about how a bipartisan board of MPs found the NDP to have violated spending rules.

The application asks the Commons for a copy of the board’s “entire file in this matter,” although not all of it may become public: The lawyers have asked for the information subject to any “confidentiality and security” rules that either the Commons asks for, or that the court orders.

Conservative MP John Duncan, the ranking Conservative on the board, declined to comment on the court submission. The office of Speaker of the House of Commons Andrew Scheer told the Citizen that the board will respond to the application “in due course.”

In early June, the board decided the NDP MPs had improperly sent out 1.9 million pieces of mail using parliamentary resources.

MPs have free mailing privileges, but what MPs send out is supposed to be for the purposes of communicating with constituents, not for partisan purposes.

After looking at what the NDP sent out, the board decided the NDP flyers were in violation of those mailing rules. All the mail included references to the NDP’s website and some listed “Tom Mulcair MP” as the return address for a survey included in the mailings.

A report written by Commons staff for members of the board in May found the mailings “were not messages from the individual Members as Members, but rather were prepared by and for the benefit of the NDP as a political party and to advance electoral purposes.”

The NDP has argued the Conservatives and Liberals ganged up to form a majority on the board and punish the NDP for something that was within the rules, and something other parties do. The NDP accused the board of running a “kangaroo court” and promised to turn to the Federal Court for help.

Every member of the board is named as a respondent in the notice, including the two NDP members, Nycole Turmel and Philip Toone. Toone is also named as an applicant as being one of the MPs found to have sent the mailings inappropriately.

Scheer’s office said it would be up to the board itself to determine if it will cover legal fees for its members named in the court action.

While the party appears to have enough cash on hand to cover the $1.17 million payment, according to an annual return filed with Elections Canada, there remains a looming possibility that the board may also order the NDP to repay funds spent on satellite offices in Montreal and Quebec City.

The board was expected to hold a rare summer meeting this month to deal with the issue.

Agencies/Canadajournal