Robocalls, ethics violations and other Scheer Scandals

By Rohana Rezel

Andrew Scheer wants Canadians to believe that he’s squeaky clean and has spent the entire campaign painting his opponents as corrupt, untrustworthy, and unethical.

What Andrew Scheer wants Canadians to forget is that his own closet is full of skeletons. Here’s a non-exhaustive list:

1. The then Speaker Andrew Scheer told a Liberal MP targeted by fake robocalls that he had no power to deal with the matter. It later turned out Scheer had hired the firm behind the robocalls^[1]https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/house-speaker-used-firm-linked-to-cotler-calls-1.1000683.
2. Andrew Scheer’s Regina-Qu’Appelle riding association in Saskatchewan transferred $3,000 to the Guelph Conservative campaign at the centre of the 2011 robocall voter suppression scandal. Opposition MPs also accused him of trying to block debate on the robocall scandal that resulted in a Conservative staffer being sent to prison. ^[2]https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/house-speaker-used-firm-linked-to-cotler-calls-1.1000683.
3. Federal ethics commission expressed his displeasure at Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer’s office encouraging a Tory MP to violate the conflict-of-interest code for members of the House of Commons^[3]https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/scheer-dion-ethics-code-1.4932501
4. Scheer first entered parliament by falsely accusing his incumbent opponent of being soft on child pornography^[4]https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/andrew-scheer-conservative-party/article36509608/.
5. A company co-founded by Scheer’s campaign manager is receiving contracts to produce election ads for both the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers and the Conservative Party. It is against the law for a political party to collude with a registered third party in areas such as advertising.^[5]https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-election-ad-contracts-capp-conservatives/. Ethics watchdog Democracy Watch called on Commissioner of Canada Elections Yves Côté to investigate whether the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) and the Tories broke the Canada Elections Act^[6]https://www.nationalobserver.com/2019/10/11/news/ethics-watchdog-pushes-collusion-probe-conservatives-oil-lobby.
6. Andrew Scheer has repeatedly refused post details of his private fundraisers while accusing opponents of keeping those details secret^[7]https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/conservative-leader-andrew-scheer-wont-post-details-of-private-fundraisers/article36327617/.
7. Andrew Scheer claimed per diem expenses while staying at his parents’ place while in Ottawa. His office later claimed that he had simply exaggerated the part about staying with his parents. ^[8]https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2016/12/06/andrew-scheer-parents-home-cpac-interview_n_13456270.html.
8. Even the Conservative Party leadership contest that Scheer won was shrouded in controversy. The Conservative Party had to expel nearly 1,400 members after at least three leadership campaigns complained of possible fraud in the registration process^[9]https://nationalpost.com/news/politics/conservative-party-expels-nearly-1400-members-after-three-leadership-campaigns-allege-fraud.
9. Andrew Scheer either lied about being an insurance broker or illegally worked as an insurance broker without a licence. Scheer prominently listed “insurance broker” as his profession before becoming a politician on his résumé. The Globe and Mail found no record he ever received the licence required by law to work as an insurance agent or broker in Saskatchewan.^[10]https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-andrew-scheer-a-work-in-progress-where-the-conservative-leader-comes/
10. Andrew Scheer refused to explain how he travelled to the United States as a citizen without a valid U.S. passport. Scheer, while confirming he has United States citizenship passed to him by his American-born father, insisted that he hasn’t renewed his passport since becoming an adult. But it is against the law for US citizens — including dual nationals — to enter or leave the United States without using a valid American passport^[11]https://nationalpost.com/news/politics/election-2019/scheer-wont-explain-u-s-travel-as-a-citizen-without-a-valid-u-s-passport.
11. Andrew Scheer made unfounded claims about a possible Liberal-NDP coalition hiking the GST rate. When confronted, Scheer claimed that it was up to Justin Trudeau to prove that he won’t raise taxes^[12]https://election.ctvnews.ca/truth-tracker-scheer-s-claims-of-liberal-ndp-gst-hike-unfounded-1.4645668.
12. Andrew Scheer defended his party’s decision to run false and misleading Chinese-language Facebook advertisements claiming the Liberals plan to legalize hard drugs^[13]https://globalnews.ca/news/6025644/conservative-facebook-ads-drugs-liberals/.
13. Andrew Scheer defended a controversial Tory candidate who has a history of posting anti-LGBTQ and conspiracy theories on social media. “This recommendation is a strict red light. There are many anti-gay/LGBT and even sterilization posts that make this candidate extremely controversial and problematic,” a preivious Ontario PC party vetting report of the candidate said^[14]https://election.ctvnews.ca/tory-candidate-scheer-defended-deemed-extremely-controversial-and-problematic-in-2016-vetting-report-1.4593683.
14. Andrew Scheer has refused to apologize for his anti-LGBTQ comments and staunch opposition to Same Sex Marriage. During a speech in parliament against the Civil Marriage Act that legalizied same sex marriages in Canada, Scheer described compared same sex marriage to the tail of a dog and went to say “It is abhorrent to me, to other Catholics and to every member of every faith community.”^[15]https://www.ourcommons.ca/DocumentViewer/en/38-1/house/sitting-76/hansard
15. Andrew Scheer refused to admit or deny whether whether his party hired Warren Kinsella’s firm to “seek and destroy” Maxime Bernier and the People’s Party of Canada. “As a rule, we never make comments on vendors that we may or may not have engaged with,” he responded every time a reporter quizzed him on the controversy^[16]https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-scheer-wont-say-if-conservatives-hired-kinsella-firm-to-seek-and/.

Contact the Author

You can reach Rohana Rezel at rohana@rezel.ca. You can also find him on Twitter, Facebook and Github.