Ex-candidate due back in court on March 22
The case of Tamara Goeppel,
The case of Tamara Goeppel, the former Yukon Liberal Party election candidate who stands charged with violating the Yukon Elections Act, has been postponed three weeks.
Goeppel was not actually present at her first appearance in territorial court this morning, and her lawyer did not enter a plea.
Federal Crown prosecutor Leo Lane asked Justice of the Peace Sharman Morrison-Harvey for Goeppel’s case to be adjourned until March 22 because of the substantial volume of the disclosure.
Richard Fowler, Goeppel’s Vancouver-based lawyer who appeared via telephone, agreed.
Goeppel was charged earlier this month with two counts of “aiding or abetting persons in making proxy applications that were not in accordance with Section 106 of the (Yukon Elections) Act,” and one count of “inducing persons to falsely declare on proxy application that they would be absent from the Yukon during the hours fixed for voting.”
Goeppel is the first person to be charged under the Yukon Elections Act.
The charges stem from her use of proxy ballots in the 2016 territorial election, while she was a candidate in the Whitehorse Centre riding.
During the campaign, Goeppel organized proxy ballots for 10 “vulnerable” people in her downtown riding, according to a Nov. 1 Liberal party statement.
Proxy votes are reserved for people who have reason to believe they won’t be able to vote on election day or at advanced polls because they will be out of the territory.
The territorial Department of Justice asked a federal prosecutor to argue the case against Goeppel to eliminate the appearance of a conflict of interest, said Noel Sinclair, general counsel with the Yukon regional office of the Public Prosecution Service of Canada.
“The allegations are inherently political, and involve the workings of the election and the Yukon government, and so it could appear to some people that there is a conflict of interest if the Yukon government conducted that prosecution within its own Department of Justice,” said Sinclair.
“To preserve the appearance of fairness, they’ve determined to refer the prosecution to an independent prosecution agency, i.e. the Public Prosecution Service of Canada.”
Goeppel has been silent since the Whitehorse RCMP announced the charges on Feb. 16, but Fowler said the ex-candidate plans to “rigorously defend herself.”
The Nov. 7, 2016 Yukon election was the last to offer proxy ballots as a voting option.
Proxy ballots have been replaced with “special ballots,” which allow eligible voters to cast ballots in person or by mail any time after the fourth year of a government’s mandate.
Special ballots are meant for people who will be out of the territory for extended periods of time, and allow electors to vote for either a candidate or a party.
A person found guilty of an offence under the Elections Act could face a fine of up to $5,000, a jail sentence of up to one year, or both.
In 2014, Goeppel unsuccessfully ran to be the Yukon’s Liberal Party of Canada candidate in the October 2015 federal election. She lost the nomination to Yukon MP Larry Bagnell.
Comments (10)
Up 0 Down 1
Ken Ken on Mar 6, 2017 at 6:19 pm
Gee, given the Conservative track record on election voting fraud you'd think they would want to remain silent on this but no we have the old pot/kettle scenario again. Are all those federal Cons out of jail yet and can anyone remember Erik Nielsen's escapades around the Territory with cases of whisky?
Elitist Cons never seem to amaze with their Benedict Arnold attitudes.
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Stanley Miller on Mar 6, 2017 at 4:23 pm
She did not know better or did not care about the law.
If you break a law for any reason, and in this case it was lame, there are penalties that may include jail time and fines. Just because you have a lame excuse, it usually does not hold up in court.
To put it another way, what if this crusading woman had said people are poor and then went out and killed moose and caribou and gave the meat away or made nice homemade stews for the Sally Anne. Same story, this is against the law, here is your day in court and if you are guilty, here is the sentence.
Why waste our time with the martyr defense? Silly defense for a crime most people feel strongly about.
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Harry K. on Mar 4, 2017 at 10:35 pm
This is vindictive beyond a reasonable doubt. Why do we have returning officers if they're going to be overruled by right wing crown losers. If the Crown has this much extra time on their hands maybe they would want to bring some of the murders we have walking around in our society foot loose and fancy free. It's like when you go fishing and strike out so you head to the local pike pond to debruise your ego. Justice your doing a fantastic job. not
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leftovers on Mar 4, 2017 at 7:17 pm
Basically this is a more innovative and dubious version of politicians or party members coming to your house on polling day and offering you a ride to the polling station. However in this era of robocalls and racially and politically slanted telephone surveys this is one more example of a complete lack of ethical conduct. Is this not the way of politics?
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north_of_60 on Mar 4, 2017 at 5:14 pm
The LIB silence on this clearly shows that proxy vote scams are a common practice and the mistake she made was getting caught.
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Evangeline Ramirez on Mar 4, 2017 at 11:15 am
RCMP charged Tamara Goeppel with violating Yukon Elections Act. It seems to me that this is POLITICALLY MOTIVATED. This is the first I have ever heard to be "charged" through "PROXY VOTING"
I urge Tamara to ask help from outside justice to eliminate "conflict interest" "especially the PUBLIC PROSECUTORS in the Yukon. We should try to distinguish between harmless and harmful "HYPOCRISIES" and should worry only about its most "damaging" varieties. THANK YOU.
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Jose on Mar 3, 2017 at 3:45 pm
What is that old saying, one that some seem to forget? "Commit the crime, do the time."
Simple enough for me.
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My only question on Mar 3, 2017 at 12:56 pm
How much more work has she done with these disenfranchised people since the election?
From the news stories she felt the need to give these people a voice... only during an election... and only for a vote... and only if that vote was for her.
She might want to just admit guilt, ask for the mercy of the court, and plead her ignorance of the issue.
"I thought it was a legitimate way to gain votes and offer those who wouldn't normally participate in elections and opportunity to do so."
More the truth than some B.S. about empathy for the silent.
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head shake on Mar 2, 2017 at 2:38 pm
It seems to me that there was valid reason for those people to believe they would be unable to vote on election day. If they wanted Tamara to have their votes, that's up to them.
Counselling them to write down that they would likely be out of the territory is just plain wrong though. That shows an overt disregard for the law. You can't say she 'didn't know' if she told them to lie.
With all the things I've heard over the years it seems to be very unfortunate for Tamara that the system finally decided to do something about what goes on in Yukon elections. She is the first person to be charged! This is small potatoes compared to some stories one hears.
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Joe on Feb 28, 2017 at 6:58 pm
This is sounding more and more like bs