The party did not say exactly what caused the disqualification, but there have been at least two incidents where people complained

OTTAWA — The Conservative Party has disqualified Jim Karahalios from the race following complaints over his behaviour.

The party did not say exactly what caused the disqualification, but there have been at least two incidents where people complained about his behaviour.

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Karahalios had infuriated many by circulating a letter that targeted Erin O’Toole’s campaign chair, Walied Soliman, a well-known Toronto lawyer. Soliman is Muslim, and the letter accused O’Toole of promoting Sharia law by having Soliman on his campaign. “Mr. Karahalios’s bigotry will result in electoral obliteration for our Party,” O’Toole said in a statement at the time.

Shortly after, a race-relations group lodged a complaint with the party about a Facebook post where Karahalios boasted about the reaction to his Soliman letter, including screenshots of people calling him a racist on Twitter.

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The post showed Karahalios smiling as an angry mob of people comes after him with weapons, with black people featured prominently in the centre. “This image is profoundly insulting and deeply racist,” said the complaint from the Toronto-based Urban Alliance on Race Relations, calling for Karahalios to be disqualified.

A statement from the party said Karahalios had initially been sanctioned by the party’s chief returning officer on Tuesday, though it did not specify exactly what the sanction was. Karahalios appealed that sanction to the party’s Dispute Resolution Appeals Committee (DRAC).

“Today, DRAC issued a ruling that Mr. Karahalios would be disqualified as a candidate in the Conservative Party’s Leadership Election,” the statement said. It said no further comment on the matter would be coming from any party officials.

The Karahalios campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

This is the second candidate during the leadership race who has been blocked from running, following Richard Décarie, who was not approved as a candidate despite claiming to have met all the entry requirements. Décarie had created controversy after going on national TV and claiming that being gay is a choice, among other inflammatory comments.

This image is profoundly insulting

Meanwhile, there will be at least four candidates on the final ballot of the Conservative leadership race, and two of them — Leslyn Lewis and Derek Sloan — are strongly backed by the pro-life movement and other social conservative organizations.

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But that number is unlikely to grow higher, as Rick Peterson and Rudy Husny have effectively ended their campaigns after the party rejected their request to suspend the race during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Conservative Party has now approved both Lewis and Sloan as “verified candidates,” meaning they’ve fulfilled all the entry requirements for the race, including submitting $300,000. That status means they can participate in official debates and their names will be on the final ballot on June 27. They join Peter MacKay and O’Toole as the only verified candidates so far.

Both Lewis and Sloan are endorsed by the Campaign Life Coalition, Right Now, and other pro-life groups who are effective in organizing membership and fundraising drives.

Lewis, a commercial lawyer specializing in environmental regulation, has a large base of support among evangelical Christians, but she also has broader support thanks to her involvement in Toronto’s business and philanthropic community.

Sloan, a rookie MP from Eastern Ontario and a Seventh-day Adventist, has run a more hardline ideological campaign, constantly slamming abortion services, conversion therapy bans and medically-assisted death. Sloan also picked up significant support from those backing Decarie.

Photo by Meghan Balogh/The Whig-Standard/Postmedia Network

Meanwhile, with a final deadline of March 25 approaching, other candidates look unlikely to advance.

Husny, Peterson and Marilyn Gladu have all called for the race to be suspended due to COVID-19, but the leadership election organizing committee has decided to keep the race going and stick to the deadlines.

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Peterson announced on Friday he’s ending his campaign. “The Party’s unwillingness to change the rules is unfair to the candidates in this race, unfair to the Party’s grassroots and ultimately it will be unfair to this race’s winner,” he said.

That follows Husny’s announcement on Thursday, who said that “during this national health crisis, I don’t have the heart to call our members to ask them to support my nomination and to donate money.”

In her own statement, Gladu said she is still trying to meet the full entry requirements. “However, given the current pandemic, achieving these goals is more difficult if not impossible,” she said.