A King’s Bench judge has dismissed a lawsuit by a former MLA who claims Alberta’s chief electoral officer interfered with his campaign and maliciously harassed him.
Joe Anglin, former MLA for Rimbey-Rocky Mountain House-Sundre, says he plans to appeal the ruling, which says Anglin abused the courts in an attempt to challenge the results of the 2015 provincial election.
In a ruling released Monday, Judge Michael Lemma agreed with previous court rulings that there was no evidence of malicious prosecution of Anglin by Chief Election Officer Glenn Ressler for alleged election violations.
Lemma ordered Anglin to pay Elections Alberta’s legal costs.
In an interview, Anglin said he did not accept the judge’s decision.
“I don’t look at it as a defeat,” he said Tuesday. “I look at it as a hindrance.”
Anglin, a lawyer and U.S. Marine veteran, led the Alberta Green Party from 2008 until its dissolution in 2009. In 2012, he was elected MLA representing the Wildrose Party before leaving that party’s faction in 2014 ., to participate as an independent deputy.
In 2015, he ran as an independent candidate for re-election in the riding of Rimbey-Rocky Mountain House-Sundre.
Anglin placed fourth in the riding, which was won by then-Wildrose MLA Jason Nixon. Nixon is now Finance Minister of the United Conservative Party government.
During and after the 2015 election campaign, Ressler launched several investigations after complainants alleged that Anglin had violated the Elections Act.
Ressler told Anglin that he should not portray himself as an MLA in campaign ads, lawn signs and pamphlets.
Ressler also fined Anglin $250 for printing sponsorship information on his election signs in a font he said was too small. Elections Alberta will remove any signs that do not comply with the law, Ressler said in a letter to Anglin.
More than seven years later, Anglin has not paid the $250 fine.
Anglin said he changed his election signs in 2015 after the chief election officer said they violated election law. (Submitted by Joe Anglin)
He says he added larger font stickers and more information to the signs after being notified.
A few weeks later, many of Anglin’s election signs were gone, cut or defaced. Anglin is blaming Elections Alberta for that, although the judge said there was no evidence the agency removed the signs.
Appeal in principle
Ressler also fined Anglin $500 after a voter list turned up in a surplus government filing cabinet that the chief election officer said came from Anglin’s office in Sundre. Anglin contested this in court; a judge overturned the fine last year.
In the lawsuit against Ressler, Anglin’s lawyer claims Elections Alberta is turning a blind eye to other candidates who don’t fully comply with election laws while repeatedly investigating Anglin and threatening him with fines.
Anglin sought $2.2 million in damages.
Lemma said there was no evidence Ressler acted in bad faith, noting that Ressler closed some of the investigations without sanctioning Anglin.
Anglin told CBC News he thought the judge was wrong and denied it was an attempt to challenge the outcome of the 2015 election.
He said he and his lawyer should pursue the challenge in principle.
“None of us expected it to go this far,” he said. “We are simply committed to the rule of law. I think that keeps us motivated.”
For example, Lemma found that the guidelines about text sizes on election signs written by Ressler’s office were legally enforceable. Anglin said it set a dangerous precedent for bureaucrats to unilaterally set laws.
A spokesman for Elections Alberta said Tuesday that neither Ressler nor the agency would comment on the judge’s decision.
Anglin ran as the Alberta Party candidate in the riding of Rimbey-Rocky Mountain House-Sundre in the 2019 provincial election. He placed third with five percent of the vote.
He said he has no plans to run in the next provincial election, scheduled for May 2023.
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