Toronto mayoral candidate Barbara Hall said yesterday she's "pleased" police will not pursue a complaint about her pre-election campaign activities, a decision that tosses the matter over to city council.
The Ontario Provincial Police decision not to investigate will be seen as a political plus for Ms. Hall, who no longer has the cloud of a police probe hanging over her before the Nov. 10 election.
But the four main rivals racing her to the wire -- including Tom Jakobek, who first laid the complaint -- seem keen not to let her off the hook.
The Friends of Barbara Hall group raised eyebrows with the way it collected and spent $107,000 last year, before the official launch of her run for mayor. Ms. Hall says she obeyed the rules, but her critics say she got a head start in the campaign.
Yesterday, citing an earlier court decision, OPP Superintendent Ross Bingley said in a statement, "The proper channel for this matter is through council."
Last month, the Toronto Police Service asked the OPP to conduct an independent investigation into allegations raised by Mr. Jakobek.
York University Professor Robert MacDermid, an expert on campaign-finance law, said the OPP decision "underlines the absurdity of municipal finance laws.
"No one seems to want to pursue a complaint and there's no clear line about who is responsible to investigate," he said.
Last night, Mr. Jakobek said he was "disappointed" by the OPP decision, but is not sure if he will pursue the one option now left to him -- to request that the new city council audit Ms. Hall's campaign finances.
Under election rules, a request for an audit would come after candidates have filed their election expenses by March 31, 2004. Council would appoint an arms-length committee of experts, not elected officials, to carry out an investigation.
In theory, there are severe penalties for breaches of the rules, including fines and a provision for a politician to be tossed out of office. But there's also wide latitude under the law to excuse politicians from suffering the worst fate if the rule-breaking was found to be inadvertent or an "error in judgment."
Since August, Mr. Jakobek has been unsuccessful in getting any officials, from city and provincial elections officials to the police, to investigate whether Ms. Hall broke the law.
In September, Mr. Justice Brian Trafford quashed a summons from a justice of the peace for Ms. Hall to appear in court to answer the complaint initiated by Mr. Jakobek.
But in his ruling, Judge Trafford concluded that Mr. Jakobek had "reasonable grounds" to support his belief that Ms. Hall had broken the rules.
That decision paved the way for Mr. Jakobek to request a police investigation.
Ms. Hall, who has been dogged by questions over the issue, said yesterday, "Tom Jakobek has now taken to his complaint to seven different places. I suppose he could take it to an eighth. If he does, he will lose there too."
Yesterday, fellow mayoral candidates David Miller, John Tory and John Nunziata all called on Ms. Hall to "clear the air" and take steps to sort out whether she broke the rules.
While none of those three took steps to go after Ms. Hall's pre-election campaign activities, they all sympathized with Mr. Jakobek's difficulty in finding the right forum to investigate the issue.
"I know I did nothing wrong," Ms. Hall said.