A source who volunteered for Brampton North Liberal candidate Ruby Sahota in 2015 says Sahota personally stapled illegally donated campaign cash to membership applications in the lead-up to her nomination.

The source, who spoke to True North on the condition they not be named due to fear of retribution said that thousands of dollars in $5 and $10 bills were attached to Liberal Party of Canada membership forms by Sahota and a volunteer. Sahota’s campaign then submitted these applications to the Liberal party.

Sahota won the nomination, then went on to win her seat for the Liberals in 2015. She’s now seeking re-election.

True North has also obtained court documents alleging Sahota’s 2015 nomination and general election campaigns illegally received $50,000 in cash from a restaurant owned by Sahota’s family, as well as $17,000 in undeclared expenses incurred on the restaurant’s credit card.

The allegation appears in a divorce application filed by Sahota’s former sister-in-law, Satinder Kaur Johal, against Sahota’s brother, Rajveer Singh.

Also named as respondents in the file are Sahota’s and Singh’s parents, Harbans Singh and Surinder Kaur Singh, because of their involvement with the restaurant and other commercial ventures. 

Johal and Singh, who are now divorced, owned a Brampton Fionn MacCool’s franchise with Harbans Singh.

“In or around 2014, my husband’s sister, namely, Rabinder Ruby Sahota, decided to run as a nomination candidate for the Liberal party in Brampton-North (sic),” Johal alleges in the court filing. 

“My husband, without my consent gave her $10,000.00 for her nomination membership and spent $40,000.00 for her election. This money came by way of cash transactions at the restaurant as well as payment through his father’s MBNA Credit Card in the amount of $17,000.00. Even that amount was paid from the restaurant during the marriage.”

The case never went to trial and these allegations have not been proven in court. 

Sahota won the Liberal nomination at a March 2015 meeting that saw more than 3,700 Liberal members of Brampton North show up to vote. Reports at the time said this set a new record for the most members to vote at a nomination meeting in Ontario. 

While the Liberal party removed its membership fee in 2016, at the time of Sahota’s nomination it cost $10 to join the party: all membership forms required would-be members to affirm they were paying with personal funds and would not be reimbursed.

Donations to nomination campaigns are capped at $1,600 per person. Corporate donations are illegal, and all contributions over $200 must be publicly disclosed.

Sahota’s 2015 nomination campaign’s return filed with Elections Canada says the campaign spent $16,827. Most of this went towards advertising and bulk mailing, though a $3,616 payment to Sahota’s father, Harbans Singh, is listed only as “VARIOUS.”

The campaign claimed just under $22,000 in monetary and non-monetary contributions from 17 donors.

True North has chosen not to publish the entire court record because it contains a number of family details not relevant to Sahota or her campaigns.

Numerous inquiries to Sahota’s personal email address and campaign media representative went unanswered, as did text messages, phone calls and an email to Sahota’s brother.

Johal, who works as a lawyer in Brampton, declined to comment.

With files from Candice Malcolm

Earlier this year, Larissa* came to Toronto from Brazil on a visitor visa. She worked illegally for a bit while in Canada before deciding she simply didn’t want to leave, so she contacted an immigration lawyer for guidance on how to stay in Canada legally and permanently.  

It’s not an uncommon story, according to her immigration lawyer Richard Boraks. 

One of the requirements to immigrate to Canada is to prove one’s competency in the English language, which can be done by taking an exam called the IELTS (International English Language Testing System). The IELTS exam (known colloquially as “the Yeltz exam”) is a standardized test that assesses the English language proficiency of those who do not speak English as a first language. 

It is administered by a privately-run company that works with the federal government and immigration department to determine who can come to Canada. 

Four skills are tested: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. The maximum number of points one can earn in each category is nine. 

To come to Canada under the Federal Skilled Worker Program, one must have received at minimum an average score of seven. To come under the Federal Skilled Trades Program, one must have at least an average of four in reading and writing, and five in speaking and listening. 

Larissa decided she wanted an average score of 7.5, but she didn’t think she could obtain that score by actually writing the exam, so she searched “buy ielts online” and started contacting those who could forge a certificate for her.

True North was shown screenshots of the WhatsApp conversations between Larissa and the IELTS certificate hucksters. The first IELTS certificate seller Larissa contacted ended up swindling her out of £250 GBP (approximately $423 CAD). She sent the money, but never received the doctored certificate. 

However, she eventually found another seller who made her a certificate for a pretty penny. This time, she paid £500 GBP (approximately $844 CAD), and successfully received an authentic IELTS certificate. Notably, her certificate was stamped from India, even though Larissa had never been in India – she was still in Toronto. 

“Is the certificate valid? I don’t know. Never tried it,” said Boraks in an interview with True North. “But no one has been charged for a fraudulent IELTS certificate, ever. Period, finish, full stop.”

“Indian authorities and British authorities are cracking down on this, but in Canada, the CBSA [Canadian Border Services Agency] isn’t doing anything,” he said. 

Boraks is referencing a recent report that Niagara College in Ontario ordered over 400 students who had been admitted to its January 2019 programs and had taken IELTS tests in India to undergo a second English test or risk losing their offer of admission. A probe found “inconsistencies” between the IELTS test scores submitted by some students from India, and their actual English proficiency. The college made 1,300 admission offers to Indian applicants during the winter 2019 term; of which 428 were asked to retake the IELTS test or take an alternative English test.

Boraks brings attention to the fact that IELTS is co-owned by IDP Education, and 50% of IDP Education is owned by SEEK Ltd. 

“SEEK is in the recruitment business. They’re in the business of moving bodies around the world,” Boraks told True North. 

This means an English proficiency exam company is in partnership with companies that help people find jobs around the world – mostly in the English-speaking world. 

“Look at Laurentian University. They set up entire courses [for international students largely from India], and none of the kids showed up,” said Boraks.  

“They all went to work illegally, working 60-80 hours as truck drivers. You need drugs to stay awake for that long as a truck driver. But eventually, if you’re taking drugs, you’re useless as a truck driver. Then these undocumented people become unemployed and turn to crime. That’s why there is so much crime in places like Brampton,” Boraks states.

Boraks claims the recent IELTS fraud cases have been brought to the attention of the RCMP.  

“But these immigration scams, the RCMP has no permission to look into them. They’re not allowed to ask questions. There are hundreds of millions of dollars wrapped up in these scams.” 

*name has been changed

With files from Cosmin Dzsurdzsa and John Ployer.

Since the writ dropped, Justin Trudeau has spent half of his time campaigning and endorsing candidates in Liberal-held ridings while on the campaign trail, and a majority of his time in Ontario and Quebec.

True North researchers used official Liberal party campaign itineraries as well as events reported in the news to compile this report. Our analysis stretches from the beginning of the campaign on September 11 to October 17, the day this report was compiled. 

The report looks at three key areas of the Trudeau Liberal’s campaign:

1. How many visits the Trudeau campaign dedicated to each province
2. A federal breakdown of what party held ridings where Trudeau visited and stumped for the local Liberal candidate 
3. A provincial breakdown of which party held the riding in which Trudeau attending a campaign event with the local Liberal candidate

Quebec and Ontario account for over two thirds of campaign visits

Campaign stops were split into two categories for methodological reasons: general visits were stops in which Trudeau appeared in a city without campaigning for a candidate from a specific riding, whereas candidate rallies targeted specific ridings in any given area. 

To see how much attention the Liberal leader gave to each province of Canada, we took into account both general visits and candidate rallies for the following percentages. The two debate appearances and one pre-debate appearance were also considered in our count.

Of Trudeau’s 85 campaign stops made since September 11, his top destination was Ontario, where 44 percent of his visits took place. 

Put together, Ontario and Quebec received a total of 71 percent of Trudeau’s time while campaigning, with Quebec making up 27 percent of total campaigning.

The maritime provinces collectively came in third place for frequency of visits, making up for 14 percent of total visits. New Brunswick and Nova Scotia were the most frequently visited provinces in the region, both receiving five visits each, followed P.E.I, and Newfoundland and Labrador which only received one visit each. 

After the maritimes, visits to British Columbia made up nine percent of the total campaign stops. Notably, British Columbia was also the first stop of the Trudeau campaign. Nunavut then followed B.C., which received two campaign stops, both of which happened in the same day. 

Meanwhile, Alberta, Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island, Manitoba and Saskatchewan, only received one single visit by Trudeau each. 

Liberal and NDP-held ridings the top national destination for Trudeau

For our federal breakdown of the ridings targeted by the Trudeau campaign, we only took into account candidate rallies, of which we counted 56. To be more specific, candidate rallies were campaign stops where Justin Trudeau appeared with and promoted candidates for targeted ridings. General visits were not included for the sake of statistical accuracy and because of the general and open-ended nature of those events. 

In this section, we looked at which party held the seat in the last Parliament. 

Over the course of the campaign, Trudeau spent exactly half of his time campaigning for candidates in Liberal-held ridings across the country, making up a total of 28 individual appearances alongside Liberal MPs.

NDP-held ridings were the next most frequently targeted ridings on the federal stage. A total of 27 percent of Trudeau’s time was spent campaigning with the local Liberal candidate in ridings held by the NDP. 

Relatively little attention was paid towards campaigning in Conservative-held ridings, coming in with only 14 percent of total visits despite the CPC being a tight contender for the election.

Interestingly, the next most frequented ridings were those held by four different Independent candidates, making up a total of eight percent of all campaign visits. These were the ridings of: Jody Wilson-Raybould (formerly Lib.), Jane Philpott (formerly Lib.), Tony Clement (formerly CPC) Hunter Tootoo (formerly Lib.) and Pierre Nantel who is now running as a Green Party candidate (formerly NDP). 

Finally, Bloc Quebecois-held ridings received the least amount of visits, making up only two percent of Trudeau’s campaign stops. 

The high volume of visits to Liberal-held ridings could be an indication of some concern about losing base support due to repeated scandals by the party leader. It could also indicate that the Liberals are worried about losing support among traditionally progressive voters to the NDP and the Greens, who have been performing well in recent polls. 

At the same time, the high frequency of visits to NDP-held ridings might be an attempt to scoop up new seats to give the needed edge to maintain government. 

NDP-held ridings in Quebec and Liberal-held ridings in Ontario get most attention from Trudeau

Breaking down Trudeau’s candidate rallies by province gives a clearer picture of the Liberal Party’s strategy and which kind of voters the Liberals are intending to target in this campaign. 

In Ontario, Trudeau spent a majority of his time campaigning in the province by visiting ridings already held by the Liberals. More than half (53 percent) of candidate rallies in the province were in ridings held by the Liberals. Ontario was also the province with the highest quantity of visits to Conservative-held ridings, making up 23 percent of his visits in the area.

Visits to NDP-held ridings in Ontario made up a total of 17 percent of Trudeau’s time on the campaign trail, which is low compared to his national average of 27 percent. Independent ridings held by former Liberal Jane Philpott and former Conservative Tony Clement each received one single visit from Trudeau, making up for seven percent of his total time spent campaigning with Liberal candidates in the province. 

Quebec paints a much different picture than Ontario, with NDP-held ridings taking the lead for Trudeau rallies with Liberal candidates. A total of 58 percent of his time spent in Quebec was spent in NDP-held ridings. On the other hand, unlike Ontario, Trudeau spent only one fourth of his time in Quebec tending to Liberal-held ridings, indicating a much more confident position with regard to their popularity in the province and the re-election of his Liberal MPs in Quebec.

Both ridings held by the Bloc Quebecois and Independent candidates tied with eight percent of Trudeau’s rallies in the province, with each receiving one individual visit by the Liberal leader. 

Trudeau’s single visit to Alberta was to Edmonton-Strathcona — a riding formerly held by NDP MP Linda Duncan, who announced she will not be seeking re-election.