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“We are not going to order the commencement of legal proceedings, as we don’t see a public interest in doing so,” lawyer Andrew Wright, who chairs the independent committee, said after it emerged from a discussion behind closed doors.

Their reasoning will be made public next month.

Omer apologized profusely and stressed that he’s never been on the wrong side of the law, offering to donate to charity to offset for over-donating to politics.

“I never had an ill intention,” he said.

He gave a total of $7,100 to nine candidates, including several pro-taxi in recent industry battles as Uber entered the market. It was his first time donating in a municipal campaign, he said.

White, who lives in Arva but owns a business in London, said he “didn’t have a clue that the rule existed.” He donated $5,100 among 11 candidates, many of them opposed to bus rapid transit plan.

“If I had of known about the rules, I definitely wouldn’t have over-contributed,” he said. “I take full responsibility for that, but I don’t recall ever having any candidate tell me the rules.”

Several former candidates and a sitting councillor agreed the burden shouldn’t fall to the candidate.

“It cannot be up to us to police this,” Coun. Shawn Lewis said. “It’s actually inappropriate, I think, for me to be asking someone who else they donated to.”

Other former candidates stressed the busy nature of municipal campaigns, where candidates often have only a few minutes on the doorstep to try to win a vote.

The other stark reality at the local level? Money talks. Donations are crucial to waging an effective campaign, but ineligible for tax receipts, unlike provincial and federal political donations.

Cities like London can suggest changes to the Municipal Elections Act based on their election experiences.

But Sancton argued the rule book is already a vast improvement over a more lawless time in the world of election campaign finances, saying it was like “the Wild West” when he began studying politics.

“Candidates went out and collected whatever money they could,” he said. “Now we have these rules and there are violations at the margin, but we’re a whole lot better off than we used to be.”