CPC removed Karahalios from leadership ballot after calling out Walied Soliman’s past

Earlier today, Conservative Leadership candidate Jim Karahalios was disqualified from the race by the Party’s Dispute Resolution Appeals Committee (DRAC) for reasons that remain unclear by the Party.

An investigation into two separate incidents of Karahalios by the Leadership Election Organizing Committee (LEOC) was conducted, one involving a letter to supporters and the other a perceived racist interaction over Facebook. The Toronto-based Urban Alliance on Race Relations filed a complaint with the CPC regarding the post, where Karahalios responded to his letter, sent two weeks prior.

The post depicted the following, which the race-relations group found “profoundly insulting and deeply racist.”

According to the National Post, “the post showed Karahalios smiling as an angry mob of people [came] after him with weapons, with black people featured prominently in the centre.”

A Statement from the Conservative Party’s DRAC communicated that “statements made by Mr. Karahalios through email, mail, and social media earlier in the month” led to his disqualification

Former Conservative Leadership candidate Richard Décarie took to Facebook to voice his displeasure after the Party “quietly removed” Karahalios from the ballot, despite reaching 3,000 signatures and raising $300,000 to qualify as a Verified Candidate.

Despite the mum response from the CPC, there is reason to speculate that Karahalios’ letter, regarding O’Toole’s Campaign Chair Walied Soliman, may have facilitated the decision, in part.

In the letter, Karahalios acknowledged an incident from May 2017, where he fought the “Brown-Walied carbon tax.” At the time, he implored the party to reopen party nominations after ballot box stuffing may have occurred.

In an Ontario Superior Court injunction, Soliman was interviewed by police regarding the ballot box stuffing incident with former PC Candidate, Vikram Singh, “whose father had alleged ties to ‘Sikh Extremism’,” according to the Globe and Mail.

Soliman refused to be audio or video recorded – the notes taken by the detective regarding the interview are listed below.

Regarding Soliman’s supposed involvement in the incident the report includes text messages between himself and Gurshuran Sidhu, who was monitoring the election on behalf of Vikram Singh. Soliman’s phone number was confirmed to be the one texting in black font.

In the exchange between Soliman and Sidhu, Sidhu states, “If there’s any discrepancy in votes cast and the list, I will personally make their life miserable.”

Sidhu also states that “Rick,” who was mentioned in the detective’s notes, “can say goodbye to his political aspirations” if said discrepancies occurred. Soliman replied with “Good,” followed by “Have two ppl watch Logan carefully and 2 watch rick.” 

He also cites that the recent Ontario election in May 2017 was “a war,” expressing concern over ‘sick enemies’ that required “the boys to watch the boxes.”

Considering the evidence on Soliman’s supposed involvement in the ballot stuffing scandal, it would be inappropriate for Karahalios to have been disqualified for the attacks that he made against him. 

The exact details have yet to be released by the CPC so a more fulsome explanation should be expected to clearly specify what exact statements Karahalios made were worthy of disqualification.