Candidates Removed by Nominations Committee due to Campaign Misconduct

After repeated warnings and progressive sanctions concerning their misconduct during the election campaign, BCNU's Standing Nominations Committee ("Committee") removed candidates Will Offley, Sharon Sharp, and Mary Jean Lyth from the ballot. The Committee removed them from the ballot for breaching their undertaking to the Committee to retract false information they published in their campaign literature and for violating the Union's polices and guidelines by which they agreed to conduct their campaigns when they each signed their nomination forms. The Committee concluded that the continuous onslaught of false and/or misleading statements by these former candidates undermined the electoral process, and that a free and fair election was no longer possible. The Committee made this decision independently free from any consultation with or influence by the incumbents.

At the time of their nomination, each candidate signs a standard declaration acknowledging that they understand that if they violate the Union's election guidelines, e.g., the BCNU Constitution & Bylaws, the Union's election policies, including the Candidate's guidelines, and BCNU's Climate Goals, they may be either asked to withdraw from the election or be declared invalid by the Committee.

The Committee is responsible for conducting and overseeing the election (Bylaws Article 4.03(e)) and for receiving, investigating, resolving, and remedying complaints from BCNU Members regarding the election process (Article 4.03(f) and 4.03(g)). To date, the Committee has received 105 complaints from BCNU Members' (compared with 23 during the last election) with respect to candidates running for President, Vice-President, Treasurer or Executive Counsellors - the overwhelming majority of Members' complaints were about the campaign being run jointly by Mr. Offley, Ms. Sharp and Ms. Lyth. Most of the complaints against these former candidates alleged that they were publishing information that was false or misleading, some of which was a re-publication of alleged defamatory statements that are the subject of a civil lawsuit between Gayle Duteil against Will Offley.

Each candidate must act honestly and with integrity; must not do anything which jeopardizes or is detrimental to the Union; must uphold the mission and core values of the Union; must ensure that their campaigns are accurate and not misleading; must not interfere with the campaigns of other candidates; must not make statements or take actions that are unduly personal or malicious; must provide to the Committee written verification of any statements made during their campaign, if requested to do so.

Mr. Offley, Ms. Sharp, and Ms. Lyth were required by the Committee to remove several misleading or false statements they published jointly during their campaigns, including, but not limited to, false claims about the existence of a BCNU grant program for an MBA in Healthcare; false claims about return-trip airfare for Executive Committee member's spouses; false claims about the number of annual round-trip airfare for a President residing outside of the Lower Mainland, and a misleading claim about maid-service for a condominium occupied by President Gayle Duteil. Less severe sanctions imposed by the Committee on these former candidates did not have the desired affect of conducting their campaigns fairly in accordance with the rules within which they agreed to conduct their campaigns. The less severe sanctions imposed upon these former candidates included, removal and retraction of false and/or misleading statements, publication and posting of bulletins by the Committee to the BCNU membership concerning complaints about their electoral misconduct.

BCNU members filed several complaints after Convention regarding the publication by the former candidates of further false and/or misleading information. During the investigation of these complaints, the Committee became aware that these former candidates had republished the misleading information about the "maid service" that they had previously represented to the Committee that they would remove from their campaign. The Committee considered this a serious breach of their undertaking to remove this false and misleading information, which the Committee had accepted to resolve a previous complaint against them. The investigation revealed additional false information that was published by these former candidates. For example, these former candidates stated in their 17 May 2017 Convention Blog 2 on their campaign website that the Occupational Health and Safety ("OH&S") budget was decreased by "a full 30%," when, in fact, the 2017 OH&S budget previously approved by Council increased by 32.3% or $990,337. The former candidates published information intended to mislead BCNU members by conflating the Union's actual expenditure in OH&S for 2016 with the 2017 budget. The same blog shows that these former candidates understand the difference between an expenditure during one fiscal year and budgeted amount in another.

Similarly, in their Convention Blog 1 they state falsely that one of the first orders of business was approval of the audited financial statements of the Union. In fact, Convention does not and was not asked to approve the Union's audited financial statements. The Council approves the audited financial statements, not Convention. In the same blog they contend that there was insufficient time in the Convention agenda for the Treasurer's report and the resulting discussion. Notwithstanding that both Mr. Offley and Ms. Sharp were accredited credentialed delegates to convention, they neither sought to amend the Convention agenda nor to extend the time for discussion of the Treasurer's report.

With only 3 weekend days before voting was scheduled to commence, the Committee concluded that there was insufficient time to correct the false and misleading information that was being repeatedly published by the former candidates. The ongoing publication of false and misleading information interfered with the campaigns of other candidates. The Committee concluded that as a result of the false and misleading information published by the former candidates the results of the election would not constitute a free and fair election. The Committee had previously warned these former candidates that as a result of their misconduct as candidates they may either be asked to withdraw from the election or the Committee would remove their name from the ballot.

Unfortunately, the former candidates could not find it within themselves to conduct their campaigns fairly and in accordance with the policies, rules, and guidelines to which they previously agreed. Consequently, the Committee will prepare and present a ticket of nominations with the names of the remaining candidates to the Executive Director and the President in accordance with Article 4.03(d) of the Bylaws. Since no other candidates were nominated for the Provincial Officer positions, the remaining nominees will be elected by acclamation in accordance with Bylaw Article 4.01.

The Nominations Committee is going to ask Council to remove the former candidates as members in good standing under Article 2.10 of the Bylaws and the former candidates will face disciplinary charges to answer to their misconduct under Article 24 of the Bylaws.