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Elections commissioner dismisses Tory complaint about Liberals’ edited O’Toole video

Sep 1, 2021 | 2:43 PM

OTTAWA — The commissioner of elections has dismissed a Conservative complaint that the Liberals violated election law by releasing an edited video of Erin O’Toole’s views on health care.

The Conservative party had asked Yves Cote to investigate whether the edited video clip of their leader constituted a violation of the Canada Elections Act prohibition on misleading publications.

The video, posted by Liberal Chrystia Freeland during the opening week of the campaign, was labelled “manipulated media” by Twitter.

In a brief letter to Freeland, Cote’s office says it “carefully reviewed” the Twitter post and video and has concluded “no offence has been committed under the act.”

As a result, the office has closed its file on the matter.

The video showed O’Toole talking about his support for private, for-profit medical clinics within Canada’s public health care system but edited out his proviso that universal access must remain “paramount.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 1, 2021.

The Canadian Press