Ward 11 Coun. Bill Leduc appears to have broken campaign finance rules in a few areas, and the 2022 Grandparents’ Day event should have been accounted for as a campaign function.
This, according to a third-party review by KPMG which followed two related complaints from members of the public last year and the Election Compliance Audit Committee concluding there were “reasonable grounds” to proceed with an investigation.
The committee is scheduled to consider KPMG’s report during a July 3 meeting at Tom Davies Square.
Leduc told Sudbury.com that he has hired a lawyer to help him fight the ruling, and hopes to find himself exonerated of wrongdoing.
Central to the complaint is a Sept. 11, 2022, Grandparents’ Day event which took place at Chartwell Westmount on William Retirement Residence.
Both resident Anastasia Rioux and Leduc’s political rival, Christopher Duncanson-Hales, issued complaints to the committee, flagging the event as a campaign function for Leduc which should have been included in his campaign finances. The 2022 civic election took place a month after the event, on Oct. 24, 2022.
Duncanson-Hales first raised the issue shortly after the Grandparents’ Day event took place, but the city deferred it for the the Election Compliance Audit Committee to deal with after the election.
The committee heard Rioux’s complaint, but dismissed Duncanson-Hales’ complaint due to them already agreeing to a third-party investigation into the matter in response to what Rioux submitted.
Some of Rioux’s key points were:
- Leduc’s vehicle, with a campaign image on it, was parked at the entrance to the property during the event.
- Leduc and a few of his supporters wore “Team Leduc” jackets while at the event.
- A videographer Leduc hired for $750 filmed footage of Leduc at the event for a campaign video.
- Some flyers advertised the event as being sponsored by the Ward 11 CAN (Community Action Network), while others advertised it as being sponsored by Ward 11.
- In a video of the event, an emcee credits “Team Leduc” for organizing the event and providing “All your food, all your prizes, compliments of Bill Leduc putting this together.” Leduc is seen being handed the microphone shortly after, and he doesn’t question the emcee’s statement.
In their report, KPMG notes that Municipal Election Act 88.19(1) clarifies, “costs incurred for goods or services by or under the direction of a person wholly or partly for use in his or her election campaign are expenses,” which constitute an election expense.
As such, the KPMG report concludes, “All expenses of Grandparent's Day 2022 may be determined to be expenses in relation to Mr. Leduc's election campaign.” A $2,998.27 Grandparents’ Day expense is then required to be included as part of Leduc’s campaign finances.
Between this and other “apparent adjustments,” a total of $3,080.45 was not included as part of Leduc’s campaign expenses but should have been, meaning he “appears to have exceeded the general spending limit by up to approximately $2,938.”
Other apparent breaches in campaign finances KPMG reported include:
- Leduc accepted a $1,000 contribution from Norm Bouffard, which included a $500 cheque and $500 in cash. This is $475 in excess of the cash contribution limit. Municipal Elections Act 88.8(8) stipulates that contributions greater than $25 “shall be contributed in a manner that associates the contributor’s name and account with the payment or by a money order signed by the contributor.”
- Leduc accepted $3,000 from Anna Maria Villano in a series of three cheques from the same bank account. The memo lines for the cheques included the names of Anna, Mike and Frank Villano, respectively. This appears to be $1,800 in excess of allowable contributions from a single contributor.
- Leduc incurred 15 expenses totalling $307.14 which were not paid from his campaign bank account or reimbursed to Leduc.
Despite these additional findings, the focus of the complaint and rationale for the Election Compliance Audit Committee seeking a third-party review centred on Grandparents’ Day.
The committee’s notice of decision cites the following key points of evidence as leading them to determine it was a campaign event which should have been included in his campaign finances:
- The emcee introduced Leduc and “Team Leduc,” saying, “Thank you so much for putting this together, Bill. All the food, your prizes, compliments of Bill Leduc.”
- Leduc confirmed he paid for prizes for the event with his own money.
- Although Leduc submitted letters from people at the event claiming he was not campaigning at Grandparents’ Day, when paired with evidence from the complainant, his evidence was “not credible in light of the photographs and videos which clearly demonstrate the candidate’s election campaign materials being displayed at or in proximity to the event.”
- Several people, including Leduc, are seen wearing “Team Leduc” jackets.
- Leduc’s vehicle, with a magnetic election sign on its side, was parked on a grass area outside of the event venue’s driveway.
- A Leduc campaign video included footage from the event. Leduc confirmed he had the video produced for his election campaign.
KPMG’s 85-page report responds to available evidence, submitted materials and discussions with four people, including Leduc.
A Leduc campaign video, filmed by SocialRise Inc., included footage from the Grandparents’ Day event. Leduc told KPMG the footage was not filmed by SocialRise Inc., but by an attendee. Social Rise Inc. CEO Connor LaRocque confirmed to KPMG that he attended the event to get footage of Leduc for the election campaign video.
“KPMG notes that Mr. Leduc's use of footage from the Grandparents’ Day 2022 event for his election campaign video appears to support the Rioux Application's assertion that Mr. Leduc promoted his election campaign at (and/or through) attendance at the event.”
In response to the report, Leduc said that he’s sticking to his guns.
“This is obviously a smear campaign from the applicant and my opponent,” he said. “It was Grandparents’ Day, nothing other than Grandparents’ Day. It’s really unfortunate that the applicant and the opponent, or the Ward 11 posse, viewed this as an election event, because it’s not an election event. ... Yes, I organized the event. There’s nothing illegal about that.”
Leduc said the investigation was not fair because new evidence was provided to the committee and was not given to him in advance. He plans on making his case with lawyer Tim Harmar by his side on July 3.
Further, he said KPMG’s non-committal language in their report, including such wording as “appear to be contraventions” and the repeated use of the word “if” when describing events, doesn’t make for a definitive report.
During the July 3 meeting, the committee will decide whether to commence legal proceedings against Leduc for apparent contraventions of campaign finance rules. They will hear presentations up to 10 minutes in duration each from Rioux and Leduc, and then deliberate whether to commence legal proceedings with a vote.
There will be another Grandparents’ Day event in September, Leduc said, reiterating that it has never been a campaign event.
(On this front, he told KPMG that he can’t explain why he was pictured in front of a campaign sign and with a door hanger promoting his campaign at the 2018 Grandparents’ Day event, and that supportive residents must have put them there.)
“It’s just really discouraging,” he said. You wonder why people go out of their way to do things for their community when you’ve got somebody else in the background trying to destroy something good.”
The July 3 Election Compliance Audit Committee meeting is scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m. It can be viewed in-person or livestreamed by clicking here.
Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.
