{"id":212573,"date":"2019-05-03T03:21:19","date_gmt":"2019-05-03T07:21:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=212573"},"modified":"2019-05-03T03:21:19","modified_gmt":"2019-05-03T07:21:19","slug":"alberta-ndp-wants-special-prosecutor-to-oversee-police-probe-of-ucp-leadership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/05\/03\/alberta-ndp-wants-special-prosecutor-to-oversee-police-probe-of-ucp-leadership\/","title":{"rendered":"Alberta NDP wants special prosecutor to oversee police probe of UCP leadership"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Opposition Leader Rachel Notley says she has sent a letter to the Justice Department calling for a special prosecutor to oversee RCMP investigations into alleged voting and funding irregularities in the 2017 race. (File Photo<\/a>: Rachel Notley\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

EDMONTON — Alberta’s New Democrats want independent oversight and an ethics ruling on the controversy surrounding the United Conservative leadership race won by Jason Kenney before he became premier.<\/p>\n

Opposition Leader Rachel Notley says she has sent a letter to the Justice Department calling for a special prosecutor to oversee RCMP investigations into alleged voting and funding irregularities in the 2017 race.<\/p>\n

Notley says Kenney and new Justice Minister Doug Schweitzer — who ran for and lost the leadership to Kenney — need to be at arm’s length from investigations or prosecutions.<\/p>\n

\u201cProsecution and investigation of the law must be kept independent from political interference,\u201d Notley said Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is why it is so fundamentally important that a special prosecutor be appointed immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n

She has also written to the ethics commissioner asking for a ruling on whether Kenney and Schweitzer are in a conflict of interest, given their participation in the leadership race and the new titles they hold after being sworn in this week.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have people investigating their bosses,\u201d said Notley. \u201cWe are in a position that needs to be addressed on an urgent basis.\u201d<\/p>\n

Notley also talked about the case of Peter Singh, a UCP candidate who won the constituency of Calgary-East just days after Mounties searched his auto repair shop and confiscated a hard drive.<\/p>\n

Singh’s lawyer has said the raid was tied to the voter fraud investigation and Singh has said he has done nothing wrong.<\/p>\n

Singh and other backbench UCP legislature members have yet to be sworn in as legislature members.<\/p>\n

Notley said that traditionally a member facing serious criminal charges should step outside caucus until the matter is resolved –and Singh should as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is not appropriate to have someone sitting in that legislature who is under criminal investigation. It is really that simple.\u201d<\/p>\n

Singh could not be reached for comment. Government spokeswoman Christine Myatt said there would be a response later.<\/p>\n

Mounties have been investigating allegations that email addresses were fraudulently attached to party memberships to cast ballots in the UCP leadership contest.<\/p>\n

Kenney handily defeated main challenger, Brian Jean of the former<\/p>\n

Wildrose party, and Schweitzer. They both expressed concerns at the time that voter fraud had occurred, but the committee overseeing the vote said it found no such evidence.<\/p>\n

Schweitzer went on to win the Calgary-Elbow riding in the April 16 election in which the United Conservatives defeated Notley’s NDP.<\/p>\n

Alberta’s elections commissioner is also reviewing the 2017 leadership contest and has levelled fines over illegal funding for Calgary businessman Jeff Callaway, who was also a leadership candidate.<\/p>\n

Kenney has faced, and rejected, allegations that Callaway was a puppet who entered the race on Kenney’s behalf solely to attack Jean while Kenney stayed above the fray.<\/p>\n

In March, documents surfaced showing that the Kenney and Callaway campaigns shared talking points, attack ads and agreed on a date on which Callaway would quit the race to back Kenney.<\/p>\n

Kenney said such communication is normal in politics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

EDMONTON — Alberta’s New Democrats want independent oversight and an ethics ruling on the controversy surrounding the United Conservative leadership …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":208502,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-212573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ca","category-news","mauthors-dean-bennett","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212573"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212573\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":212574,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212573\/revisions\/212574"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/208502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}