Here's why our campaign filed a notice of appeal of this past weekend's nomination.

Thanks to the team for your support and advice on next steps.

First, and most importantly, thanks to the team for everything.

Your support and words of encouragement mean more than you can know.

And it’s that very team - including our volunteers on the ground and voters who were shocked by what they saw - that has overwhelmingly asked me to appeal the results.

A 19 vote difference.

While it’s tough to lose a close one, it’s even more taxing on me to keep fighting. And I thought long and hard about letting it go because that would just be easier (for any future politics, for my own personal life, for my sanity, etc.).

But doing politics differently is why I left law in the first place, and honesty and integrity matter more than whatever might be easier for me personally.

So we have appealed.

It’s about the integrity of the process, not about me.

And to make that as clear as possible, I will remove myself from any future process or consideration in Scarborough Southwest if it means the party will actually investigate and take action.

We’ve now done a full debrief with our team of scrutineers, who are made up of accomplished lawyers and experienced election observers.

Here’s what you should know:

First, there were 34 more ballots ultimately counted than there were recorded voters and no reasonable explanation for the significant discrepancy. If the same error rate occurred in a federal election, it would mean over 400,000 unaccounted-for ballots. Not acceptable, obviously. Especially when the margin was only 19 votes.

Second, there were repeated and serious inconsistencies with respect to proof of identification, and problematic actions in the voting area that completely undermined any ballot secrecy.

But don’t take it from me.

Our Chief Scrutineer, Andreas Katsouris, has 25 years of experience working with political campaigns and promoting democracy. He has trained, supported or participated in election observer groups in Armenia, Belarus, Egypt, Tunisia, Venezuela, the West Bank & Gaza, Uganda, Yemen, Ukraine, and more.

Here are his words, not mine:

1. There was an organized effort by Mr. Hafiz’s campaign to direct, monitor and pressure people throughout the voting process, from the time they walked into the building to after they cast their ballots. We saw many, many cases of people hanging around watchfully in the voting area, telling voters explicitly what they should do. Multiple people took calls on speakerphone or video so they could get instructions in the voting booth, while marking their ballots.

2. There were countless cases of individuals taking pictures of their ballots. When brought to the attention of Party officials, they acknowledged they’d all seen the same practice taking place throughout the day. In most of the world, this would be considered clear evidence of vote buying.

   

3. Among the large number of temporary residents who voted, many could not initially state their address when asked and defaulted to documentation. An unusually high number of people claimed to have “just lost” their driver’s licence or “just moved” to the area.

4. The party provided a list of IDs it would accept and then broke its own rules. Dozens and dozens of asylum seekers voted with their refugee claimant documents. Others were able to prove their addresses using just an apartment lease, sometimes unsigned and two of which improbably listed voters under 18. Other non-standard forms of ID accepted included digital report cards and Amazon orders. One man even voted with a visitor’s visa and foreign passport.

5. In the last hour or two, the OLP lost control of the voting process nearly entirely. Various people came and went, moved throughout the room, or hung around with little scrutiny. Our team witnessed repeated irregularities: people voting and then returning to the credentials line, people staying in the voting area long after they had voted, people entering the voting area via the exit.

There’s a lot more that could be said. For example, hundreds of Ontario Liberal voters and citizens were struck from the list in advance of the vote, while Mr. Hafiz’s campaign manager Ted Lojko - yes the same one who ran Han Dong’s 2019 nomination - was joined by other party establishment to get out hundreds of temporary residents to “save the party” as one prominent insider put it.

The party needs saving all right.

And to start, it needs to get to the bottom of what took place through a full investigation.

A new nomination meeting should be called or a new candidate appointed - and again, not me.

And to protect the integrity of our democracy, a full investigation needs to be matched by serious reforms.

It is obvious, for example, that we need to amend voter eligibility rules to limit participation to citizens and permanent residents.

With the Party unable to enforce basic rules central to the democratic process, such as ballot secrecy, and with 34 extra unexplained ballots, we need Elections Ontario to be tasked with managing nomination processes to safeguard their integrity and restore basic trust.

Yes, we need change across Ontario. We also need change in the Ontario Liberal Party.

We deserve truth and accountability.