Hi everyone!

I am currently in Halifax, it is a fine city and I always enjoy being here.

Yes I have been "de-registered" as a Delegate, and I have also been told that I cannot attend the convention as an Observer either! So I guess I will spend a few days loitering in the hallways.

I am exhausted after a long flight, so I haven't read this long thread in its entirety. I will try to post more details and answer any questions tomorrow.

This convention is shaping up to be the strangest I have ever attended.

I received an email from the convention email address yesterday, with a letter from Brad Lavigne explaining that I had been stripped of my delegate status.

Oddly, at almost the same time as the email was being sent to me, my friend Benn Greer got a call from Drew Anderson at NDP HQ. Benn had sent in the forms to book two tables at the convention back in June. Despite our repeated and persistent calls, emails and even messages on facebook, we had received absolutely no response to our table booking. But two days before convention begins, and on the same day that I got bounced as a delegate, Drew finally calls and says that we can have a table! I simply don't know how to interpret this bizarre timing.

Anyways, what follows is the complete text of the letter which I received by email from Brad Lavigne. I had to retype it as they sent it in a pdf format that didn't allow me to cut and paste.

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Monday, August 10, 2009

PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIAL

Mr. Dana Larson
Gibsons BC

Dear Mr Larson,

It has recently come to our attention that you have been offering to provide financial inducements to individuals to attend the Federal New Democratic Convention in Halifax.

Both on an 'eNDProhibition' web site, as well as postings in your name on Rabble.ca, you have repeatedly offered to induce individuals to attend the convention through a financial gift for voting in a certain way. This is a concern to the Party, for a couple of reasons.

The first is that provision of a material benefit for voting a certain way is clear vote-buying, a practice that is widely acknowledged to be undemocratic and one that is not in keeping with the democratic principles of the New Democratic Party.

Second, your stated intention to defray the travel, lodging, food and other costs, as well as to provide subsidies to delegates to enable them to attend the Convention, risks causing the Party to be in breach of the provisions of the Income Tax Act of Canada, which limit the amount of the tax receipt that the party may issue to a person who has made a contribution to the "eligible amount" of the contribution. The "eligible amount" of a contribution is net of any advantage or benefit that a person who has made a contribution has received or will receive, where the advantage or benefit is in any way related to the contribution.

Moreover, the offer to provide subsidies of "other items" leaves open the possibility that such delegates might end up paying all or a portion of their Convention fees (which are considered a contribution under the Elections Act) with money that is not theirs. This would be a breach of Section 405.3 of the Elections Act, which states "No individual shall make a contribution to a registered party, a registered association, a candidate or a leadership contestant or a nomination contestant that comes from money, property or the services of any person or entity that was provided to that individual for that purpose." Again, in such a circumstance the Party would be exposed to the risk of issuing tax receipts to such delegates that they would not be entitled to receive.

In short, by offering the inducements that you have, the Party would be put in the positiion of issuing tax receipts contrary to the requirements under the Income Tax Act. You will understand that the Party cannot accept such a risk.

Mr. Larsen, because your offers of financial inducements to other delegates are contrary to the democratic principles of the New Democratic Party and risk placing the Party in a position where it may issue tax receipts contrary to the Income Tax Act, the Party Officers have decided to de-register you as a delegate to the Convention.

The Party will reimburse to you any fees that you have remitted to it in connection with your planned attendance at the Convention.

Sincerely,

Brad Lavigne
National Director
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And this is the reply that I sent to Brad Lavigne:

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Hello Brad,

I am surprised and confused by this turn of events. It is shocking to me that I have been stripped of my delegate status with no chance to response to these false allegations against me.

Is there any way that I can appeal this decision?

I will take this opportunity to correct some of the misapprehensions in your letter to me.

First, allegations of vote-buying are false. I never once explicitly or implicitly offered any sort of inducement for changing someone's intended vote. The offer of travel and lodging subsidy was clearly made only to registered delegates who already support drug policy reform.

Second, I am aware of the rules around the payment of delegate fees, and we never offered or provided any sort of subsidy or payment to cover these for anyone. I was always very clear that we were offering subsidy for travel and lodging only. By "other items" we meant incidental expenses, certainly not delegate fees.

Third, because an individual's personal transportation and lodging expenses are not considered receiptable expenses, subsidization of those expenses for another individual would not in any way cause myself or the party to be in breach of the Income Tax Act.

Fourth, it should be noted that on numerous occasions, party organizations such as the ONDY or unions have subsidized delegates attending on their behalf. I am not sure how our offer of a subsidy for our delegates is any different. Youth delegates are on occasion asked to vote as a block by their provincial organization and unions are often explicit in their commands to vote a specific way.

Finally, considering that the posts in question are all well over a month old (the notice on the End Prohibition site was posted in March) I am confused as to why I heard nothing about this until two days before the convention.

My flight leaves for Halifax in a few hours and it is too late to cancel it. I look forward to discussing this with you in person.

Dana Larsen
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