Liberal leader rejects Green MLA's fraud allegation in 2022 leadership race
The leader of New Brunswick's Liberal Party says she's seen no evidence to support a claim that residents of two nursing homes were signed up to vote in the 2022 party leadership race without their knowledge or against their will.
That's the allegation made by Green MLA Kevin Arseneau, who says he has evidence that he filed last week as part of a complaint with the province's seniors' advocate.
But Susan Holt told reporters that supporters of one of her leadership rivals did sign up residents of the two Bathurst-area homes, she is not aware that any were registered unknowingly.
"No, I don't know of any," she said.
WATCH | 'It's really serious': Liberal leader on voter sign-up claims:
Minutes after her comments, Holt approached Arseneau in the rotunda of the legislature asking him to supply her with the evidence he says he has.
He refused, saying he got his information from conversations with residents and suggested Holt go speak to them herself.
2 homes owned by same person
Arseneau said last week that his own grandmother, who has dementia, is a resident of one of the two homes.
The Green MLA said in the legislature last week that 28 out of 30 residents of one Bathurst-area nursing home had been signed up as Liberals, as were 25 out of 30 residents of a second home belonging to the same owner.
A letter from the Liberal Party to Arseneau demands that membership lists be returned. (Jacques Poitras/CBC News)
He called it "a suspected case of fraud and abuse."
The two homes are both known as Chez Annie. One is in Bathurst and one is in nearby Robertville.
Arseneau said he asked the advocate to investigate what happened and accused the Liberals of having known about the issue since 2022 without acting on it.
The co-owner of the two nursing homes, Steven Sisk, told CBC News that he was approached by a supporter of leadership candidate Donald Arseneault to invite residents to join the party to vote for its new leader.
"I checked if there was any interest in taking part in that on the part of residents, and by popular demand, yes, I guess they were very interested," Sisk said.
"Everyone who was enrolled consented to it."
He also said most of the residents were very interested in politics, made their own decisions on who to vote for and were not pressured to support a particular candidate.
"They knew who they wanted to vote for anyways," he said. "You can't force nobody into nothing."
MLA's grandmother signed up
Sisk said not all of the 53 residents who signed up ended up voting, particularly residents with dementia or Alzheimer's.
"The ones who could not, did not."
He added that he didn't know if Kevin Arseneau's grandmother voted but said she consented to being signed up.
On Wednesday the Liberals sent an official notice to the Green MLA demanding he return "personal and confidential information regarding its members."
Arseneau accused the Liberal Party of signing up members from a nursing home, some without their knowledge or consent. (Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick)
Possessing the information was "unauthorized, unethical and lawful," Liberal Party president Carley Parish wrote.
Arseneau confirmed he obtained an 11-page list of all Liberal Party members in the two ridings where the nursing homes are located.
He said the Liberal notice was an attempt to "change the narrative," and he would "absolutely not" return the membership lists because it constitutes evidence supporting his complaint.
Holt said the party became aware from media organizations that Arseneau had the information, though no news organizations had referred to the list or published any of the names, addresses or other information on it at the time she made the assertion.
Arseneau said while he showed the documents to some journalists, he knew they would not publish any of the personal information.
"I have not released that information publicly. I have used it in a very responsible way, so that we could address a very real and severe and sinister problem."
Donald Arseneault, who placed fourth in the 2022 leadership race, said by text Wednesday that he rejected the suggestion his volunteers would sign up seniors without their consent.
"I have no reason to doubt that they didn't do anything wrongfully," he said.
"To make these allegations is quite unfortunate. Seniors have the right to vote."
Bathurst West-Beresford MLA Rene Legacy, who supported Arseneault for leader, challenged Kevin Arseneau to present his evidence publicly that some residents were registered without their consent.
"The MLA who brought it up is going to have to bring up the proof. I'm not going to go into a campaign of dirtying the Liberal name until I have the proof."
Holt said Wednesday that she canvassed her caucus and none of her current MLAs, including Arseneault's supporters, signed up residents of the nursing homes.
She also said the party has made it clear that volunteers must ensure "that people in positions of influence aren't unduly influencing people to do something that's not of their free will. It's something we take really seriously."
