The Peterborough Examiner e-edition

Former employer warns of voting for Wright

Taxpayers group ‘still bitter’ about court case, he says

JOELLE KOVACH EXAMINER REPORTER

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation, which once employed — and terminated the contract of — mayoral candidate Coun. Stephen Wright, emailed a letter on Thursday to about 2,000 local people urging them not to vote for Wright because “he is not someone to be trusted, let alone be elected mayor of Peterborough.”

Wright says his former employer is “still bitter” about a court case brought against him 11 years ago.

Wright was charged and investigated by City of Kawartha Lakes OPP after an allegation of fraud over $5,000, but was found not guilty in an Ottawa court in 2012.

In 2008, Wright been a canvasser with the CTF, a non-profit national advocacy and lobbying group. The police investigation — and subsequent acquittal — involved some of his fundraising practices.

When asked to comment about the CTF letter, Wright said via email Friday that over several years The Peterborough Examiner “has had an agenda” to “besmirch” him “even after a court affirmed my innocence.”

“Trash journalism is just that — trash,” he wrote.

“People in Peterborough do not need advice from an organization (CTF) that lost in court 11 years ago and is still bitter about their loss,” he added.

Scott Hennig, the president of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, said in an interview Friday that he is indeed bitter — but not about the court case.

“I’m bitter about him (Wright) and his actions,” he said, adding that the court case “is irrelevant” since it wasn’t a civil case but a criminal one brought forward by the OPP.

Hennig further said no one put him up to writing his letter. He saw that Wright was running for mayor and wanted to alert people to some of his past actions.

Hennig also said no other candidate contacted him or asked him to write the letter either — he said he doesn’t even know the other

candidates’ names.

He wrote the letter and sent it out Thursday to anyone from Peterborough whose email address the Canadian Taxpayers Federation happened to have — “around a couple thousand” citizens, Hennig said.

He further said he cannot forget the decade-old actions of Wright and that he thinks Peterborough citizens ought to know about the matter so they can make informed decisions at the ballot box.

The Examiner learned of Wright’s criminal charge and acquittal after the 2018 election, and reported on it around the time of council’s inauguration.

At that time Wright had just won a seat as a Northcrest Ward councillor.

Now he’s running for mayor in the next municipal election on Oct. 24 to replace Mayor Diane Therrien (who is not running for re-election).

Running against Wright for mayor are Coun. Henry Clarke, former MPP and city councillor Jeff Leal, former real estate broker Brian Lumsden and former teacher Victor Kreuz.

As The Examiner first reported in 2018, Ontario Superior Court Justice Jennifer Blishen had written in her 2012 judgment that Wright was accused of soliciting donations for three companies he’d created himself while employed as a canvasser for Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

His companies had names that sounded similar to Canadian Taxpayers Federation. Blishen writes in her judgment that his companies also focused on property tax reform.

He took donations from people he’d canvassed before as an agent for CTF, Blishen writes in her judgment, without making certain they understood he was working for himself — and after he collected, she wrote, he put the money in a business account that he dipped into for personal use.

Blishen further wrote that Wright’s “unacceptable, sloppy bookkeeping and accounting practices … raise suspicions as to his motivation.”

She also found that many donors were misled. Several testified in court they thought they were donating to a new offshoot of CFT and she found Wright had failed to properly explain that was not the case.

But she didn’t find that Wright had intentionally cheated, misled or misrepresented himself while canvassing.

There was evidence Wright truly meant to start a lobby group, Blishen wrote in her judgment. He’d hired employees such as a bookkeeper and a field agent to work for him, for example.

“I find that Mr. Wright genuinely intended to start a legitimate lobbying/advocacy organization to deal with property tax reform and to solicit funds for those efforts,” the judge wrote.

Clarke stated Friday his campaign never asked the CTF to do anything, and also said he is not a member of CTF and did not personally receive the letter.

Leal said he had no comment on what he called a “personal matter,” while Lumsden did not have a comment either.

Kreuz said he was “outraged” that no other candidate had anything to say about the issue.

Although Wright was acquitted, Kreuz considers the judgment to be “pretty damning” and thinks it’s important that the matter be brought to voters’ attention again.

“People in Peterborough need to know.”

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2022-10-01T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-10-01T07:00:00.0000000Z

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