EDMONTON—A donor in the “kamikaze” scheme during the 2017 United Conservative leadership race appeared to mislead the party about his contribution in the affair, which is under investigation by Alberta’s election watchdog, resulting in his being banned from running in the provincial election earlier this year.

According to court filings obtained by the Star, former UCP election candidate Randy Kerr was reprimanded by the party because he had provided them with “heavily redacted” bank statements regarding a $4,000 contribution to 2017 UCP leadership candidate Jeff Callaway. During the race, Kerr was the campaign manager for Callaway, who ran as a kamikaze candidate on behalf of now-premier Jason Kenney. He did so in order to attack Kenney’s biggest rival, former Wildrose Party leader Brian Jean.

The details were outlined in court filings with the Court of Queen’s Bench earlier this month. Attached to those filings were the findings from Alberta’s election commissioner, Lorne Gibson.

In March, just weeks before the election kicked off, the UCP ditched Kerr as the party’s candidate for Calgary-Beddington, saying he hadn’t been “forthright in responding to the party’s inquiries regarding his financial contribution to the Jeff Callaway leadership campaign.”

In the court filings, a letter from the commissioner to Kerr stated that former party executive director Janice Harrington and UCP lawyer Steven Dollansky approached their office with information. On March 7, they reviewed the party’s concerns about Kerr’s transparency and the redacted bank statements.

“When they demanded unredacted versions, it revealed that you had made a $4,000 deposit immediately before you took out $4,000 for your contribution,” the commissioner’s letter to Kerr reads.

The fallout meant Kerr was barred from running in the election by the party, and his contribution to Callaway was later revealed by the election commissioner to have broken Alberta election laws, since it was made with money that wasn’t his own.

In July, he was slapped with a $10,000 fine by the commissioner’s office for making his contribution “with funds given or furnished by another person,” according to the commissioner’s website.

However, Kerr has applied for a judicial review of the fine, claiming the election commissioner “incorrectly” or “unreasonably, exercised his powers under” Alberta’s election finances and contributions disclosure act. The application also states that the commissioner acted in a biased way, abused his authority and didn’t provide evidence before making a finding.

Kerr did not respond to the Star’s request for comment, but is being represented by Alberta’s former justice minister and solicitor general, Jonathan Denis, who declined to comment for this story.

In separate court filings attached to Callaway’s judicial review (which makes identical defence arguments as Kerr’s), the commissioner’s office outlined its findings that $60,000 was given to the Callaway campaign from the company Agropyron Enterprises Ltd., run by Robyn Lore. This was found to violate election laws since corporations are considered prohibited entities and cannot donate to election campaigns.

The team was desperate for money to fuel the campaign through its lifespan and solicited the money from Agropyron, the election commissioner’s investigation found. Kenney’s campaign team orchestrated much of Callaway’s bid, using it to attack Jean up until Callaway dropped out and endorsed Kenney, the eventual winner. Kenney’s 2017 campaign team, and Kenney himself, have denied any wrongdoing in the matter, and there’s no evidence that they knew about the illicit donations.

Text messages from 2017 between key players in the scheme were provided in the commissioner’s letter to Kerr. The move to acquire money began to take shape in early Sept. 2017, according to the letter and court filings, which indicate that the campaign was strapped for cash.

“We dilly dallied on raising money frankly,” reads one text to Callaway from someone identified only as “assistant campaign manager.”

In another text message exchange between Kerr and the “assistant campaign manager,” Kerr states: “I have no political donations to date.”

“K what about spouse and kids?” responds the assistant campaign manager.

“Good one, not opening that can of worms,” says Kerr.

They go on to discuss “trustworthy” people that they could speak to and Kerr says they “need people already committed, cant have just anyone running around with that kind of knowledge.”

Days after the texts were exchanged, the commissioner’s office said the $60,000 was given to the Callaway campaign to use in their scheme, in which Kerr participated.

The commissioner’s office said it had grounds to find that Kerr had broken election law by being “completely willing and negligent in making your irregular contribution” and because Kerr knew the scheme was against the rules.

“It is my view that this contravention was severe,” the commissioner wrote.

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In total, around $170,000 in fines have been levied as a result of the investigation, including about $70,000 against Callaway and a number of individuals who made donations with money that wasn’t theirs.

Kerr is scheduled to have his hearing on Sept. 9, 2020.

With files from Trevor Howell

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