'It's clearly illegal': Councillors want city to explore legal actions against Blackridge Strategy

SomeLondoncity councillorssay they want city staff to explore options for pursuinglegal action against Blackridge Strategy after the release this week of court documents that link the company withtwo fakewebsites that smeared two female candidates in lastfall's municipal election.

"It's clearly illegal. This is a clear violation of the Municipal Elections Act," Coun. Stephen Turner told CBC News Friday. "I think we've got enough evidence that we can refer this matter to court for prosecution."

Negative campaign websites using the names of two city councillorsseeking re-election were registered using the nameAmir Farahi, court-ordered records reveal. Farahi is the owner of Blackridge Strategy, which ran the campaigns of about a dozen municipal candidates, most running on an anti-bus-rapid transit platform.

Former city councillor Virginia Ridleyand current city councillor Maureen Cassidywent to court to uncoverwho registered maureencassidy.ca and virginiaridley.ca in the midst of the fall municipal election campaign.

The two websitescontained negative information about the two councillors, including accusing Ridley of child abuse for bringing her child to a budget meeting and calling out Cassidy for a lack of integrity. Because of the domain names, the websites looked like they were created by the candidates.

Cassidy was re-elected in Ward 5, but Ridley lost her re-election bid to Paul Van Meerbergen in Ward 10.

Turner said the court documents confirm suspicions among many at city hall there were dirty tricks used during the campaign, which he says undermine the integrity of the entire electoral process.

"This was an attack on our electoral system," said Turner."We need to show strongly and clearly that we won't stand for that. We need to take the actions that demonstrate that we will protect the electoral system."

Actions were 'subversive'

Turner said he plans to draft a motion for the June 11 council meeting that will askstaff whether there's enough evidence to ask the courts to pursue charges under the Municipal Elections Act.

"I want to give staff an opportunity to prepare information and bring it back to council for us to make a decision about how best to move forward," said Turner, who describes the actions during the campaign as "subversive" and "immoral."

Turner pointed to rules in the Municipal Act that require third-party groups to be transparent about their role in any campaign websitesor advertisements that name a candidate.

Could deter women from running

Ward 13 Coun. Arielle Kayabaga said she'd support any motion aimed at uncovering more information about Blackridge's actions in the election. She says information on the two websites amounted to an attack that could deter women from entering politics.

"This is a huge roadblock for women to participate when things like this happen," she said. "It's a sad day for London, but the only way to deal with it is to unravel the entire thingand hold accountable all the people involved in this."

Coun. Anna Hopkins also said city staff need to take a pro-active role in uncovering what happened.

"The big issue for me is, what will we do about this?" said Hopkins. "We can't just ignore it."