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Ex-Woodstock mayor sentenced to nearly five years for sexual assaults
Judge says Trevor Birtch’s crimes marked a “catastrophic fall from grace.”
Author of the article:Jane Sims
Published May 19, 2026 • Last updated 1 day ago • 5 minute read
Former Woodstock mayor Trevor Birtch leaves the London courthouse on Feb. 21, 2025. (Jane Sims/The London Free Press)
Former Woodstock mayor Trevor Birtch leaves the London courthouse on Feb. 21, 2025. (Jane Sims/The London Free Press)
Trevor Birtch’s prison sentence for violent sexual assaults on a former intimate partner marked the final act of what a judge called “a catastrophic fall from grace.”
The former two-term Woodstock mayor, who had no criminal record, was led out of a London courtroom Tuesday morning to begin a four-year, eight-month prison sentence after being convicted on two counts of sexual assault.
His victim was a vulnerable woman whose identity is protected by a court order and who Superior Court Justice Spencer Nicholson said Birtch treated “like your property, or worse, your pet.”
“Mr. Birtch, this case represents what I consider to be a catastrophic fall from grace,” Nicholson said in his ruling.
“It is not for this court to try to explain how or why your fall from grace happened, but the depths to which you have fallen is truly remarkable and quite saddening. I obviously do not know whether you can climb back up, but I do hope that you try for your own sake.”
The sentence stems from convictions in Birtch’s second criminal trial in September 2024 involving sex-related offences tied to a messy personal life while he was mayor and separated from his wife.
Nicholson found Birtch, 51, guilty in January 2025. Sentencing was delayed for more than a year after Birtch’s original defence lawyer was disbarred.
The victim, who was 39 at the time of Birtch’s arrest, described abusive and controlling behaviour by the former mayor, who she said supplied her with drugs and alcohol and routinely “raped” her when she was intoxicated.
She contended that she saw Birtch snort cocaine off-camera during online city council meetings during the pandemic.
Nicholson said the assaults were “particularly humiliating and degrading to the victim and clearly demonstrate that Mr. Birtch was only interested in his own sexual gratification.”
One sexual assault involved Birtch attempting to force the victim to perform a sex act on him on a roadside after a bizarre trip to Turkey Point where the woman had been assaulted by a stranger.
The second conviction covered assaults between January 2019 and April 2022, when the woman said she woke to find Birtch having sex with her or inappropriately touching her body without consent.
“Mr. Birtch, you treated the victim like she was your property, or worse, your pet, that you could do whatever you wanted to her, whenever you wanted.
“She was treated like an abused animal. She was not. She is a human being, entitled to be treated with dignity and respect,” Nicholson said.
During sentencing submissions in January, assistant Crown attorney Kristina Mildred sought a six-year prison sentence, while defence lawyer Jordan Gold asked for 3 1/2 years, arguing Birtch snapped under the pressures of being mayor and the breakdown of his marriage.
While Birtch would not admit to having an alcohol or drug problem in a pre-sentence report, his lawyer said he had been “over-medicating” with alcohol and over-the-counter pain medication for a shoulder injury and was now willing to seek addiction treatment.
Nicholson noted that nine letters of support “depict an honest, well-intended person of strong moral character who was selfless in his service to his community, including his time as mayor.”
“Respectfully, while much of what is stated may possibly reflect the person that Mr. Birtch may once have been or otherwise, it is clear that the person he was towards the victim in this case was very different,” Nicholson said.
The victim, who suffers from depression, anxiety and chronic pain, did not complete a victim impact statement, but Nicholson said “it was clear from her evidence at trial the level of vulnerability that she possessed and the level of degradation that she experienced at the hands of Mr. Birtch.”
Nicholson found Birtch supplied the victim with drugs and alcohol and said she “was susceptible to Mr. Birtch’s promises of favours as the mayor” and that “Mr. Birtch was prepared to wield the power that he perceived he had over her.”
“The evidence in this case demonstrated for all to see the callousness, the indifference that you demonstrated to this victim and to women in general,” Nicholson said.
He acknowledged that “Mr. Birtch has let a lot of people down as the mayor of Woodstock, but that, in my view, cannot play any role in his sentencing.”
The sentence nearly concludes years of court proceedings involving four separate matters, most tied to Birtch’s personal life following his separation from his wife.
His journey through the criminal justice system almost requires a road map.
He was first charged in February 2022 with assault, sexual assault and choking involving an intimate partner. The sentencing Tuesday relates to additional charges laid in April 2022 while he was still mayor of Woodstock.
In October 2022, Birtch lost his bid for a third term as mayor, finishing a distant third in the municipal election.
He stood trial before Justice Michael Carnegie in London in January 2024 on the first set of charges and was found guilty of assault and sexual assault in August 2024.
His second trial, the subject of Tuesday’s sentencing, was held before Nicholson in September 2024. Nicholson found him guilty in January 2025 on two counts of sexual assault.
However, Carnegie declared a mistrial in the first case in December 2024 after finding the Crown failed to disclose evidence referenced in the second trial that could have been relevant to the first.
In the midst of the London court cases, Birtch pleaded guilty in October 2024 to driving with twice the legal limit of alcohol in his blood in connection with a two-vehicle crash near Woodstock in October 2023.
Birtch had been charged in London an hour earlier with assault and unlawful entry involving another woman. Those charges were eventually withdrawn by the Crown.
There will be no retrial on the first set of charges. Last month, Birtch pleaded guilty before Justice Marc Garson to assault and sexual assault – the same counts Carnegie had convicted him on almost two years ago.
He is to be sentenced on June 16. Garson was told by the Crown and the defence that any sentence Birtch receives will be served concurrently with Birtch’s current prison term.
jsims@postmedia.com
torontosun.com
Judge says Trevor Birtch’s crimes marked a “catastrophic fall from grace.”
Author of the article:Jane Sims
Published May 19, 2026 • Last updated 1 day ago • 5 minute read
Former Woodstock mayor Trevor Birtch leaves the London courthouse on Feb. 21, 2025. (Jane Sims/The London Free Press)
Former Woodstock mayor Trevor Birtch leaves the London courthouse on Feb. 21, 2025. (Jane Sims/The London Free Press)
Trevor Birtch’s prison sentence for violent sexual assaults on a former intimate partner marked the final act of what a judge called “a catastrophic fall from grace.”
The former two-term Woodstock mayor, who had no criminal record, was led out of a London courtroom Tuesday morning to begin a four-year, eight-month prison sentence after being convicted on two counts of sexual assault.
His victim was a vulnerable woman whose identity is protected by a court order and who Superior Court Justice Spencer Nicholson said Birtch treated “like your property, or worse, your pet.”
“Mr. Birtch, this case represents what I consider to be a catastrophic fall from grace,” Nicholson said in his ruling.
“It is not for this court to try to explain how or why your fall from grace happened, but the depths to which you have fallen is truly remarkable and quite saddening. I obviously do not know whether you can climb back up, but I do hope that you try for your own sake.”
The sentence stems from convictions in Birtch’s second criminal trial in September 2024 involving sex-related offences tied to a messy personal life while he was mayor and separated from his wife.
Nicholson found Birtch, 51, guilty in January 2025. Sentencing was delayed for more than a year after Birtch’s original defence lawyer was disbarred.
The victim, who was 39 at the time of Birtch’s arrest, described abusive and controlling behaviour by the former mayor, who she said supplied her with drugs and alcohol and routinely “raped” her when she was intoxicated.
She contended that she saw Birtch snort cocaine off-camera during online city council meetings during the pandemic.
Nicholson said the assaults were “particularly humiliating and degrading to the victim and clearly demonstrate that Mr. Birtch was only interested in his own sexual gratification.”
One sexual assault involved Birtch attempting to force the victim to perform a sex act on him on a roadside after a bizarre trip to Turkey Point where the woman had been assaulted by a stranger.
The second conviction covered assaults between January 2019 and April 2022, when the woman said she woke to find Birtch having sex with her or inappropriately touching her body without consent.
“Mr. Birtch, you treated the victim like she was your property, or worse, your pet, that you could do whatever you wanted to her, whenever you wanted.
“She was treated like an abused animal. She was not. She is a human being, entitled to be treated with dignity and respect,” Nicholson said.
During sentencing submissions in January, assistant Crown attorney Kristina Mildred sought a six-year prison sentence, while defence lawyer Jordan Gold asked for 3 1/2 years, arguing Birtch snapped under the pressures of being mayor and the breakdown of his marriage.
While Birtch would not admit to having an alcohol or drug problem in a pre-sentence report, his lawyer said he had been “over-medicating” with alcohol and over-the-counter pain medication for a shoulder injury and was now willing to seek addiction treatment.
Nicholson noted that nine letters of support “depict an honest, well-intended person of strong moral character who was selfless in his service to his community, including his time as mayor.”
“Respectfully, while much of what is stated may possibly reflect the person that Mr. Birtch may once have been or otherwise, it is clear that the person he was towards the victim in this case was very different,” Nicholson said.
The victim, who suffers from depression, anxiety and chronic pain, did not complete a victim impact statement, but Nicholson said “it was clear from her evidence at trial the level of vulnerability that she possessed and the level of degradation that she experienced at the hands of Mr. Birtch.”
Nicholson found Birtch supplied the victim with drugs and alcohol and said she “was susceptible to Mr. Birtch’s promises of favours as the mayor” and that “Mr. Birtch was prepared to wield the power that he perceived he had over her.”
“The evidence in this case demonstrated for all to see the callousness, the indifference that you demonstrated to this victim and to women in general,” Nicholson said.
He acknowledged that “Mr. Birtch has let a lot of people down as the mayor of Woodstock, but that, in my view, cannot play any role in his sentencing.”
The sentence nearly concludes years of court proceedings involving four separate matters, most tied to Birtch’s personal life following his separation from his wife.
His journey through the criminal justice system almost requires a road map.
He was first charged in February 2022 with assault, sexual assault and choking involving an intimate partner. The sentencing Tuesday relates to additional charges laid in April 2022 while he was still mayor of Woodstock.
In October 2022, Birtch lost his bid for a third term as mayor, finishing a distant third in the municipal election.
He stood trial before Justice Michael Carnegie in London in January 2024 on the first set of charges and was found guilty of assault and sexual assault in August 2024.
His second trial, the subject of Tuesday’s sentencing, was held before Nicholson in September 2024. Nicholson found him guilty in January 2025 on two counts of sexual assault.
However, Carnegie declared a mistrial in the first case in December 2024 after finding the Crown failed to disclose evidence referenced in the second trial that could have been relevant to the first.
In the midst of the London court cases, Birtch pleaded guilty in October 2024 to driving with twice the legal limit of alcohol in his blood in connection with a two-vehicle crash near Woodstock in October 2023.
Birtch had been charged in London an hour earlier with assault and unlawful entry involving another woman. Those charges were eventually withdrawn by the Crown.
There will be no retrial on the first set of charges. Last month, Birtch pleaded guilty before Justice Marc Garson to assault and sexual assault – the same counts Carnegie had convicted him on almost two years ago.
He is to be sentenced on June 16. Garson was told by the Crown and the defence that any sentence Birtch receives will be served concurrently with Birtch’s current prison term.
jsims@postmedia.com
Ex-Woodstock mayor sentenced to nearly five years for sexual assaults
Judge says Trevor Birtch’s crimes marked a “catastrophic fall from grace.”
Patrick Peace
Insiders hinting that Katy Perry wants to break up with Justin already... #politicsmemes #cdnpolitics #cdnpoli
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Justin Trudeau causes squirms with schoolgirl 'short skirt' story
The former prime minister made those at conference visibly uncomfortable with story about length of schoolgirl skirts.
Author of the article:Brian Towie
Published May 19, 2026 • Last updated 1 day ago • 3 minute read
Katie Telford and Justin Trudeau at the Women Deliver conference in Melbourne, Australia.
Katie Telford and Justin Trudeau at the Women Deliver conference in Melbourne, Australia. Photo by Facebook
As if the blackface photos, the so-called Kokanee grope, and “peoplekind” weren’t enough.
Former prime minister Justin Trudeau had attendees at a women’s conference squirming as he recounted a story about teaching schoolgirls who wore their “skirts too short.”
Trudeau, 54, recently spoke at the 2026 Women Deliver Conference in Melbourne, Australia, on stage with his former chief of staff, Katie Telford. But it was Trudeau’s turn to deliver the cringey, creepy story to a predominantly female audience that was visibly uncomfortable.
Trudeau recounted a story, during his time as a teacher, when he helped found a school newspaper. He said he met a male student who was “always getting corrected” about having his shirt untucked at school. The student then wrote an essay in the newspaper complaining of what he saw as a double standard, as female students at the school would regularly break the dress code by wearing their skirts too short.
“God forbid,” interjected Telford.
Read the room, for crying out loud
Undeterred, Trudeau dug himself deeper, replying, “No, no, you see, that was also the rule — you had to keep your shirt tucked in and then have the skirt to the knees. And he (the male student) said it was totally unfair that there was a double standard on applying these rules.”
“He ended up writing this essay, suggesting that maybe the predominantly male teaching staff was slightly uncomfortable pointing out to these teenage girls that their skirts were too short, and it was just awkward for a male teacher to be pointing that out,’ Trudeau said, as both Telford and the audience seemed to grow more uncomfortable by the second.
Trudeau then went all-in, adding the essay was “a really interesting perspective.”
“So, I had the student publish this, and the newspaper got shut down the very next day,” he said.
No kidding.
Justin Trudeau in Creston, B.C. in 2000.
Justin Trudeau in Creston, B.C. in 2000. Photo by Handout
The Kokanee incident
The self-declared feminist prime minister, now dating pop star Katy Perry, found himself in some trouble when an editorial from the Creston Valley Advance in British Columbia resurfaced in 2018 accusing Trudeau of groping a young reporter while visiting the town 18 years before. The incident came to be known as “The Kokanee Grope.”
“I’m sorry. If I had known you were reporting for a national newspaper, I never would have been so forward,” Trudeau reportedly said.
“It’s not a rare incident to have a young reporter, especially a female who is working for a small community newspaper, be considered an underling to their ‘more predominant’ associates and blatantly disrespected because of it,” the editorial said. “But shouldn’t the son of a former prime minister be aware of the rights and wrongs that go along with public socializing?”
Trudeau addressed the allegations, saying he didn’t recall any “negative interactions.”
“I’ve been reflecting very carefully on what I remember from that incident almost 20 years ago,” he told reporters at the time. “I do not feel that I acted inappropriately in any way. But I respect the fact that someone else might have experienced that differently.
When asked why he apologized to the reporter, he said, “If I apologized later, it would be because I sensed that she was not entirely comfortable with the interaction that we had.
“I don’t want to speak for her, I don’t want to presume how she feels now. I’m responsible for my side of the interaction, which certainly —
as I said, I don’t feel was in anyway untoward. But at the same time, this lesson that we are learning — and I’ll be blunt about it —
often a man experiences an interaction as being benign, or not inappropriate, and a woman, particularly in a professional context can experience it differently. And we have to respect that, and reflect on it.”
Justin Trudeau in blackface
Justin Trudeau in blackface Photo by Screengrab
Blackface and brownface
Trudeau’s past came back to haunt him once again in 2019, when old photos surfaced of him wearing blackface and brownface. Time Magazine published a yearbook photo of Trudeau in brownface makeup and a turban at an Arabian Nights-themed party in 2001.
Justin Trudeau in brownface
Justin Trudeau in brownface Photo by Screengrab
And it wouldn’t end there. More photographs emerged, this time of Trudeau in “blackface” at a high school talent show where he sang Harry Belafonte’s “Day-O” along with video footage of his face, skin and tongue painted black and an object stuffed into the front of his jeans.
“I take responsibility for my decision to do that,” Trudeau said during the 2019 federal election campaign, when he defied the odds and won a minority government despite the photos. “It’s something that I didn’t think was racist at the time but now I recognize it was something racist to do.”
torontosun.com
The former prime minister made those at conference visibly uncomfortable with story about length of schoolgirl skirts.
Author of the article:Brian Towie
Published May 19, 2026 • Last updated 1 day ago • 3 minute read
Katie Telford and Justin Trudeau at the Women Deliver conference in Melbourne, Australia.
Katie Telford and Justin Trudeau at the Women Deliver conference in Melbourne, Australia. Photo by Facebook
As if the blackface photos, the so-called Kokanee grope, and “peoplekind” weren’t enough.
Former prime minister Justin Trudeau had attendees at a women’s conference squirming as he recounted a story about teaching schoolgirls who wore their “skirts too short.”
Trudeau, 54, recently spoke at the 2026 Women Deliver Conference in Melbourne, Australia, on stage with his former chief of staff, Katie Telford. But it was Trudeau’s turn to deliver the cringey, creepy story to a predominantly female audience that was visibly uncomfortable.
Trudeau recounted a story, during his time as a teacher, when he helped found a school newspaper. He said he met a male student who was “always getting corrected” about having his shirt untucked at school. The student then wrote an essay in the newspaper complaining of what he saw as a double standard, as female students at the school would regularly break the dress code by wearing their skirts too short.
“God forbid,” interjected Telford.
Read the room, for crying out loud
Undeterred, Trudeau dug himself deeper, replying, “No, no, you see, that was also the rule — you had to keep your shirt tucked in and then have the skirt to the knees. And he (the male student) said it was totally unfair that there was a double standard on applying these rules.”
“He ended up writing this essay, suggesting that maybe the predominantly male teaching staff was slightly uncomfortable pointing out to these teenage girls that their skirts were too short, and it was just awkward for a male teacher to be pointing that out,’ Trudeau said, as both Telford and the audience seemed to grow more uncomfortable by the second.
Trudeau then went all-in, adding the essay was “a really interesting perspective.”
“So, I had the student publish this, and the newspaper got shut down the very next day,” he said.
No kidding.
Justin Trudeau in Creston, B.C. in 2000.
Justin Trudeau in Creston, B.C. in 2000. Photo by Handout
The Kokanee incident
The self-declared feminist prime minister, now dating pop star Katy Perry, found himself in some trouble when an editorial from the Creston Valley Advance in British Columbia resurfaced in 2018 accusing Trudeau of groping a young reporter while visiting the town 18 years before. The incident came to be known as “The Kokanee Grope.”
“I’m sorry. If I had known you were reporting for a national newspaper, I never would have been so forward,” Trudeau reportedly said.
“It’s not a rare incident to have a young reporter, especially a female who is working for a small community newspaper, be considered an underling to their ‘more predominant’ associates and blatantly disrespected because of it,” the editorial said. “But shouldn’t the son of a former prime minister be aware of the rights and wrongs that go along with public socializing?”
Trudeau addressed the allegations, saying he didn’t recall any “negative interactions.”
“I’ve been reflecting very carefully on what I remember from that incident almost 20 years ago,” he told reporters at the time. “I do not feel that I acted inappropriately in any way. But I respect the fact that someone else might have experienced that differently.
When asked why he apologized to the reporter, he said, “If I apologized later, it would be because I sensed that she was not entirely comfortable with the interaction that we had.
“I don’t want to speak for her, I don’t want to presume how she feels now. I’m responsible for my side of the interaction, which certainly —
as I said, I don’t feel was in anyway untoward. But at the same time, this lesson that we are learning — and I’ll be blunt about it —
often a man experiences an interaction as being benign, or not inappropriate, and a woman, particularly in a professional context can experience it differently. And we have to respect that, and reflect on it.”
Justin Trudeau in blackface
Justin Trudeau in blackface Photo by Screengrab
Blackface and brownface
Trudeau’s past came back to haunt him once again in 2019, when old photos surfaced of him wearing blackface and brownface. Time Magazine published a yearbook photo of Trudeau in brownface makeup and a turban at an Arabian Nights-themed party in 2001.
Justin Trudeau in brownface
Justin Trudeau in brownface Photo by Screengrab
And it wouldn’t end there. More photographs emerged, this time of Trudeau in “blackface” at a high school talent show where he sang Harry Belafonte’s “Day-O” along with video footage of his face, skin and tongue painted black and an object stuffed into the front of his jeans.
“I take responsibility for my decision to do that,” Trudeau said during the 2019 federal election campaign, when he defied the odds and won a minority government despite the photos. “It’s something that I didn’t think was racist at the time but now I recognize it was something racist to do.”
Justin Trudeau causes squirms with schoolgirl 'short skirt' story
Former prime minister recounts story at Women Deliver conference in Australia, where attendees were visibly uncomfortable.
Nate Erskine-Smith's appeal of Liberal nomination process dismissed
Ahsanul Hafiz will continue to stand as provincial nominee for Scarborough Southwest after arbitration decision
Author of the article:Jordan Ercit
Published May 24, 2026 • Last updated 3 hours ago • 2 minute read
051226-HCP_Politics02042026_012
Liberal MP Nate Erskine-Smith answers questions by the journalists before heading into the caucus meeting at the West Block on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026. Photo by HYUNGCHEOL PARK /Postmedia
See more Toronto Sun on Google — save as a Preferred Source.
Ahsanul Hafiz will continue to stand as the Ontario Liberal nominee for Scarborough Southwest after an arbitration committee dismissed an appeal of the results by a high-profile rival.
The Ontario Liberals issued a statement late Sunday night thanking chair David Zimmer and members of the panel for the “speed and rigour of their review” of allegations brought forward by leadership hopeful Nate Erskine-Smith, who finished second to Hafiz by 19 votes during the nomination process.
“I am grateful for the careful work of the arbitration committee and my team,” Hafiz said in a statement on social media. “Party staff ran a rigorous and fair nomination process and I thank all the volunteers for their hard work.
“I am focused on winning the support of voters in Scarborough Southwest and turning this riding red.”
An email seeking a comment from Erskine-Smith was not immediately returned.
Erskine-Smith urged to ‘prove’ allegations
Erskine-Smith, who finished second to Bonnie Crombie in the 2023 Ontario Liberal leadership race and has laid the groundwork for another run this year, filed his appeal on May 12 after casting doubts on the results of the nomination process days earlier, including that he had spoken with a “few scrutineers already who said they’ve never seen anything like it and it’s unreal what happened in there.
“I don’t know,” he told reporters after learning about the results, while raising concerns about voter ID issues. “It’s unfair for me to specifically speculate. I’ve got no idea. I’ve got to talk to the team, do a full debrief with the team as to what comes next in terms of it was obviously very close and we’ll see.”
The Beaches—East York MP then took up interim Liberal Leader John Fraser’s invitation to “prove it.”
The arbitration committee was tasked with determining if the meeting was called and conducted within the party’s nomination rules. The hearing also put the burden on Erskine-Smith to prove there were irregularities in how the vote was conducted and that “individuals who were ‘not entitled to vote voted'” because of these irregularities.
While the evidence and submissions were mostly kept confidential, the appeal decision posted on the Ontario Liberal website said the arbitration committee was satisfied that “none of the irregularities alleged by Mr. Erskine-Smith was an irregularity that affected the result of the election or that calls into question the integrity of the nomination process.
“The nomination rules were followed,” the decision says. “No ballots were counted that should not have been. Mr. Hafiz was the true winner of the vote and has properly been selected by the constituency association as the Ontario Liberal Party’s candidate in Scarborough Southwest.”
‘Full attention’ now on byelection: Liberals
In announcing the decision, Fraser said that they had “committed to an open and transparent nomination process — and that commitment did not waver when a challenge was filed.
“With this process now complete, our full attention turns to Scarborough Southwest,” he said.
Premier Doug Ford has yet to announce a byelection date for Scarborough Southwest after former NDP MPP Doly Begum resigned to successfully represent the riding federally for the Liberals.
torontosun.com
Ahsanul Hafiz will continue to stand as provincial nominee for Scarborough Southwest after arbitration decision
Author of the article:Jordan Ercit
Published May 24, 2026 • Last updated 3 hours ago • 2 minute read
051226-HCP_Politics02042026_012
Liberal MP Nate Erskine-Smith answers questions by the journalists before heading into the caucus meeting at the West Block on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026. Photo by HYUNGCHEOL PARK /Postmedia
See more Toronto Sun on Google — save as a Preferred Source.
Ahsanul Hafiz will continue to stand as the Ontario Liberal nominee for Scarborough Southwest after an arbitration committee dismissed an appeal of the results by a high-profile rival.
The Ontario Liberals issued a statement late Sunday night thanking chair David Zimmer and members of the panel for the “speed and rigour of their review” of allegations brought forward by leadership hopeful Nate Erskine-Smith, who finished second to Hafiz by 19 votes during the nomination process.
“I am grateful for the careful work of the arbitration committee and my team,” Hafiz said in a statement on social media. “Party staff ran a rigorous and fair nomination process and I thank all the volunteers for their hard work.
“I am focused on winning the support of voters in Scarborough Southwest and turning this riding red.”
An email seeking a comment from Erskine-Smith was not immediately returned.
Erskine-Smith urged to ‘prove’ allegations
Erskine-Smith, who finished second to Bonnie Crombie in the 2023 Ontario Liberal leadership race and has laid the groundwork for another run this year, filed his appeal on May 12 after casting doubts on the results of the nomination process days earlier, including that he had spoken with a “few scrutineers already who said they’ve never seen anything like it and it’s unreal what happened in there.
“I don’t know,” he told reporters after learning about the results, while raising concerns about voter ID issues. “It’s unfair for me to specifically speculate. I’ve got no idea. I’ve got to talk to the team, do a full debrief with the team as to what comes next in terms of it was obviously very close and we’ll see.”
The Beaches—East York MP then took up interim Liberal Leader John Fraser’s invitation to “prove it.”
The arbitration committee was tasked with determining if the meeting was called and conducted within the party’s nomination rules. The hearing also put the burden on Erskine-Smith to prove there were irregularities in how the vote was conducted and that “individuals who were ‘not entitled to vote voted'” because of these irregularities.
While the evidence and submissions were mostly kept confidential, the appeal decision posted on the Ontario Liberal website said the arbitration committee was satisfied that “none of the irregularities alleged by Mr. Erskine-Smith was an irregularity that affected the result of the election or that calls into question the integrity of the nomination process.
“The nomination rules were followed,” the decision says. “No ballots were counted that should not have been. Mr. Hafiz was the true winner of the vote and has properly been selected by the constituency association as the Ontario Liberal Party’s candidate in Scarborough Southwest.”
‘Full attention’ now on byelection: Liberals
In announcing the decision, Fraser said that they had “committed to an open and transparent nomination process — and that commitment did not waver when a challenge was filed.
“With this process now complete, our full attention turns to Scarborough Southwest,” he said.
Premier Doug Ford has yet to announce a byelection date for Scarborough Southwest after former NDP MPP Doly Begum resigned to successfully represent the riding federally for the Liberals.
Nate Erskine-Smith's appeal of Liberal nomination process dismissed
Ahsanul Hafiz will continue to stand as the Ontario Liberal nominee for Scarborough Southwest after an arbitration decision. Read more.