NDP candidate, agent charged under Elections Act

Palluq Susan Enuaraq of Iqaluit, the New Democratic Party candidate for Nunavut in the Nov. 27, 2000, federal election, and her official agent, Elisapee Sheutiapik of Iqaluit, have been charged with failing to file legally required election finance documents under the Canada Elections Act.

Enuaraq finished a distant second in the last federal election, with 19 per cent of votes cast. Liberal party candidate Nancy Karetak-Lindell won with more than 68 per cent of the vote.

Enuaraq, now a student at the Nunavut law program in Iqaluit, is accused of failing to send a declaration regarding her electoral campaign return to her official agent.

The maximum penalties for those convicted of this offence are five years imprisonment, a $5,000 fine, or both.

Sheutiapik faces two counts, each of which carry maximum sentences of three months imprisonment, a $1000 fine, or both.

One charge alleges that Sheutiapik failed to provide an electoral campaign return, and/or related documents, to Canada’s chief electoral officer. The other alleges that she failed to return unused tax receipt forms for election contributors.

Enuaraq and Sheutiapik have yet to appear in court to have the charges read.

Under the Canada Elections Act, all federal election candidates must submit campaign finance documents to Elections Canada before a prescribed deadline.

The documents must include statements showing who contributed money to the candidate’s campaign and how much. Candidates are also required to issue receipts to contributors for income tax purposes, and to send unused receipts back to Elections Canada.

Election campaign returns must also include statements detailing how much money the candidate spent, to whom, along with various other documents.

In June 2001, Diane O’Reggio of the NDP’s national office in Ottawa told Nunatsiaq News she was “surprised” to hear that the NDP’s Nunavut organization had not filed its campaign return.

“The association will definitely be filing a return,” O’Reggio said at the time.