Christine Innes writes to the board

Dear Board Member:
As a member of our Trinity Spadina Riding Executive,  the core leadership and key volunteers of our Association, you deserve an upate on the events that transpired this past week.  Given our long history together as hard working, dedicated members of the Liberal Party I feel a strong obligation to share my position with you.
Given my many years of commitment and service to the Liberal Party of Canada, including most recently serving as Co-Chair of last year’s National Leadership Convention,  I am deeply troubled by these events.  My belief in the Liberal Party is grounded in the knowledge that it has always stood for fairness, justice and equal opportunity; that politics is about helping people and ensuring  that as a society we work together to never leave anyone behind.  We stand for inclusion not exclusion; unity not division.  What has happened in recent days could not be more contrary to these values.
The unconscionable nature of the Liberal leadership’s action  was both intimidating and harmful, not just to me and volunteers, but also my family.  The hardest part of Thursday’s news cycle was having to explain it to my children.
The extraordinary allegations made are completely without foundation.  I have never conducted, nor would I conduct, myself in the manner alleged.  Such conduct would be completely contrary to my long history of regularly and openly inviting and recruiting new people into our Party
Background
As you know, I have  been working very hard over the last several months in preparation for an impending by-election.  I had already recruited more than enough members to succeed in an open nomination in Trinity Spadina (or either of the two new ridings for that matter).   I was neither focussed on, nor interested, in a nomination in either of the new ridings  as I truly believed that it was a discussion best had after the by-election.  Party leadership until recently had acknowledged that I would be approved as an acceptable candidate for nomination in Trinity Spadina and had agreed that it was important to stop discussion about 2015 nominations prior to a by-election; they, like most people in the riding, understood that to do otherwise would be confusing to electors and could threaten the party’s chances in that by-election.   For me, it was about my honesty and integrity, and that decisions about who runs in which ridings could and should have been resolved after the by-election.
As of the morning of March 7, Party leadership still acknowledged I was an acceptable candidate for nomination.    David MacNaughton’s email (Attachment 1) to me on the morning of March 7, suggests he was still seeking a constructive way forward so that we “can focus on winning the by-election”.  This constructive approach changed dramatically in the late afternoon of that same day when I was presented with a document for signature referred to as Form 12 (Attachment 1A) in a face-to-face meeting with him. I have tried to determine without success where this document came from including what Forms 1-11 might be. My inquiry  to the Party office provided no clarification.
Form 12 purports to relate to the National Redistribution Rules, but there does not appear to be any reference to it in the only version of these rules I could find online.  In any event, Form 12  was a complete departure from the discussions I had with Party leadership.  The form states that I would now only be approved as a qualified nomination contestant for the byelection,  if I signed a declaration promising to seek a 2015 nomination in the “successor riding” as determined by the National Campaign Co-Chairs.
About two hours after our March 7 meeting, David MacNaughton sent me an email (Attachment 2) in which he clearly acknowledged he knew it was not reasonable, or advisable, to force the by-election candidate to “lie or obfuscate” about future plans.
On March 10, I confirmed to David MacNaughton (Attachment3) that I could not sign the form he had given me.   I obviously agreed with his March 7th statement a candidate should not  lie.  I further indicated that I found the form offensive as it specified that Party leadership would only greenlight my candidacy for nomination if I agreed to a party-assigned riding for 2015.  It remains my view that this document is contrary to our Leader’s publicly-stated commitment to “open, transparent and fair” nominations, and would have seriously hampered the by-election.
On March 13, David MacNaughton emailed me (Attachment 4) to advise that the Party leadership would not allow me to run in the by-election or in the 2015 general election.  The stated grounds were my refusal to sign Form 12 (notwithstanding he knew it would be a problem to do so), and a surprise allegation that “my campaign team began to use intimidation and bullying on young volunteers” and made derogatory comments.  I was completely shocked by these malicious, defamatory and false allegations, and immediately emailed David MacNaughton (Attachment 5) to tell him so. Mr MacNaughton and the Party leadership nonetheless decided to immediately leak their story and repeat these malicious, defamatory and false allegations to the national media.
Over the course of the news cycle these allegations seemed to gain in malcious falsehoods.  For example, they morphed from “my team” to “my husband”, to making an example of me, to  interjecting the irrelevant issue of my husband’s past political involvement despite his strong and progressive record as an elected member in both the Chretien and Martin governments.
At no time were the details of any of the allegations made by David MacNaughton shared with me, nor was I provided any opportunity to respond.  It seems that their allegations are tied to my refusal to sign the form. I cannot understand how the Liberal leadership could allow a handful of people to act in an undemocratic fashion, contrary to Charter rights and values, by making unproven allegations and then not allowing any due process to refute those allegations.
I find it difficult to understand how the Liberal leadership can take such action on the basis of unsubstantiated allegations against my husband. Even if true – and they are not – should a woman be banned from being allowed to run for public office because of allegations against her spouse? What does this say about how the Party leadership actually views the rights of women to be measured on their own merits?
Despite the Party leadership’s public attempts to destroy my reputation I have been given extraordinary comfort by the hundreds  of supportive calls, emails and texts I have received from friends, volunteers and others of all political stripes across the country.  They have encouraged me to fight against this unfair and undemocratic action. Friends and colleagues in the legal community have offered to support me in legal action. This support has overwhelmed me and will require some careful thought and reflection in the days to come.  The difficulty is, I am a lifelong Liberal.
The last number of days have been very difficult for my family, my children in particular.  Your confidence in me means more than you can imagine.  Please do not hesitate to contact me if you wish to discuss any of the matters illustrated above.
Kind regards,

Christine