Ads that targeted Kinew in 2023 vote ruled lawful

Manitoba’s elections commissioner says 2023 election ads that targeted Wab Kinew in the race for the Fort Rouge seat were statements of opinion and didn’t break the law.

Bill Bowles has ruled billboard and radio ads involving Progressive Conservative candidate Réjeanne Caron were statements of the future and of opinion, and therefore allowed under the Elections Act.

The commissioner received four complaints about the ads, including from the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs.

Caron unsuccessfully ran against Kinew in Fort Rouge during the 2023 election. Kinew handily won the vote while Caron came in a distant second.

During the campaign, a billboard in the riding depicted Caron and stated in capital letters: “Under Wab Kinew violent crime will only get worse.”

Another ad claimed Caron and the PC party were the “only team fighting to defend, not defund, the police.” Another version of the ad referenced Kinew’s “troubled background, run-ins with the law and bullying ways.”

In his report Bowles referenced another elections commission investigation in which Kinew’s past legal trouble were mentioned, and that because Kinew did, indeed, have past run-ins with the law the ad did not constitute a violation.

The claim that crime will worsen under Kinew’s direction was a statement about the future and is an opinion, the report said.

The assembly had complained an ad on a bus bench breached the ethical code of conduct. The complaint said the ad identified Caron as a police officer but does not identify her as a PC party candidate. The assembly claimed the ad suggested Caron was speaking in her capacity as a member of the Winnipeg Police Service and it implied that the PC party and WPS are “allied in their fight against violent crime.”

“Even if the (assembly’s) allegations are correct, however, there is no prohibition in The Elections Act against advertisements that, though they say nothing false, are nevertheless misleading,” the report said.

The assembly also complained the bus bench was outside the Fort Rouge constituency, but the report noted the ad appeared to have been placed by the PC party and not the candidate, which is permitted by law.

Meantime, a former PC candidate has signed a compliance agreement after he unknowingly broke the Elections Financing Act.

A separate report from the commissioner found that Josh Okello registered $7,398 in campaign donations under his children, when they were in fact “family funds” paid out by Okello and his wife. The pair had hit their annual personal campaign contribution limit of $5,000 each.

The report found there was no reasonable way the donations were made by his children, who were both under seven years old.

Bowles ruled the donations contravened Manitoba’s elections financing law, but believed Okello thought the donations would be permissible. Bowles did not recommend any charges and Okello signed the compliance agreement.

nicole.buffie@freepress.mb.ca