Glover legal team files 55-page brief with Court of Queen’s Bench

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This article was published 07/11/2021 (1143 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The lawyer for Manitoba Progressive Conservative leadership candidate Shelly Glover has filed a 55-page brief with the Court of Queen’s Bench, arguing why it should hear her complaint alleging irregularities in the party’s Oct. 30 election.

The document includes legal arguments that aim to convince Justice Jim Edmond the court has jurisdiction to hear the case, alleging the election that declared Heather Stefanson the winner, and hence premier, should be declared invalid.

What it does not include is the notorious “spreadsheet” at the heart of Glover’s court application. In a sworn affidavit submitted to court last week, she said her campaign was presented with a spreadsheet at 12:27 a.m. on the day of the vote that showed the total number of ballots to be counted was 16,045.

Later that day, the party announced Stefanson was the winner and premier-designate after receiving 8,405 votes, compared to 8,042 for Glover. The total number of ballots cast, it said, was 16,456 — 501 more than allegedly reported on the spreadsheet.

The spreadsheet was not included in Monday’s brief for the court that won’t even decide if it will hear the case until after a Nov. 19 hearing.

“I usually do not burden the judge with voluminous pieces of paper — in this case over 273 long-form docs — and I followed my usual practice here,” Glover’s lawyer, Dave Hill, said Monday.

The PC party has said it’s not commenting on the matter because it’s before the court.

The brief outlining why the Court of Queen’s Bench should hear Glover’s case points to recent precedents elsewhere in Canada, and argues there is no other avenue of appeal for her to pursue. It cited a 2018 Ontario Superior Court decision by Justice Todd Archibald in a case against the PC Party of Ontario.

“There is no doubt that our courts may intervene after an election if an aggrieved party can demonstrate that there was unfairness or illegality in the process,” Archibald said in his decision.

In Glover’s case, going to court is her only option because there is no avenue of appeal or remedy in the party’s constitution, her legal team argued.

The PC Party of Manitoba’s constitution and rules give it the authority to hold a leadership election and decide who can run as a candidate, and it’s hard to believe it created the rules without intending that they’d be legally enforceable, Glover’s legal brief says.

“The (PC party) is not an organization which hosts informal social activities: it is a major political party currently holding the majority in Manitoba.”

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca