Re: Patrick Browns War on the PC Party Grassroots

I hate to say it - Patrick Brown is at war with the PC Party grassroots. At his insistence, Brown, his campaign
team, and PC Party president Rick Dykstra, have usurped multiple essential democratic processes as
mandated by our PC Party constitution. And they are doing it, without apology. Enclosed are two articles that
provide further details:

1. Excerpts of a news report describing Browns deception in claiming to have hired the rm
PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) to certify PC nominations.

2. An opinion-editorial I co-authored with fellow PC Party member Kara Johnson, based on a recent Ontario
Court decision, wherein we argue that contrary to media reports and his own assertions, Brown does not
have the legal authority to appoint PC candidates of his own choosing at the expense of the PC
Partys constitutional requirement to hold open, public, and democratic nominations.

I hope after considering this information, you will help us to Take Back Our PC Party, before its too late.

Back in May of 2017, Brown claimed that he had set the gold standard for nomination practices when he
hired PwC to certify all future PC nomination meetings. This was Browns response to an unprecedented
number of PC nominations that involved ballot-stufng, cheating and other fraudulent activities. But on October
26, 2017, it was reported that ofcial PwC documents conrmed that the rm is not certifying or verifying
anything at PC nominations - Brown had been deceiving us all along.

Brown initially used his hire of PwC as political cover to push another deceptive practice - the claim that he had
the legal authority to unilaterally appoint all the candidates for the PC Party, if he so chooses. Dykstra then
used Browns proclamation to excuse the PC Party executives decision to ignore its constitutional obligation to
consider the appeals of dozens of nominations that contained evidence of fraud and other irregularities.

But, on October 24, 2017, Justice Borenstein of the Ontario Court of Justice, in the R. v. Lougheed decision,
afrmed that a political partys constitution sets out the process by which a person may become [a partys]
candidate at an election. The PC Party constitution states that all nominations must be open, public and
democratic and, unlike the Ontario Liberal Party constitution, it gives no power to the PC leader to appoint
candidates.

Justice Borensteins statements clarify that Brown has no such legal power to appoint candidates. As a
result, there are many PC nomination candidates who potentially had their nomination meetings stolen from
them and from the intent of PC Party members. Sometimes, I wonder if Patrick Brown would rather be leading
the Ontario Liberal Party.

page 1 of 2

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Take Back Our PC Party, PO Box 40031 Dupont PO, Toronto, ON M5R 1V0
Brown and the PC executive have also violated the PC constitution with regards to our partys policy process.
Even though the PC constitution states that a Policy Conference must be held at least once a year, Brown
and the PC executive are attempting to lead our party into the next general election, without holding even a
single Policy Conference during Browns tenure as PC leader! You may have heard about a November 24
policy convention: well, as it turns out, its only going to be a rally that members are being asked to pay $199
to attend! And there will be absolutely no debating, or voting, on policy at all, at this event!

Under the PC party constitution, PC party members have only one constitutional obligation - to uphold this
constitution. It seems these days, the only individuals who are guilty of violating our PC constitution are
Brown, his legal team, and the members of the PC executive themselves.

Browns deceptiveness and the corruption of our PC constitution makes a mockery of our partys attempts to
present an ethical alternative to the corrupt Ontario Liberal government. Kathleen Wynne must not be allowed
to win in 2018. But a corrupted PC party that practices deception cannot mount a credible effort to defeat her.

We need to clean up this mess and Take Back Our PC Party before its too late.

The PC Party constitution has a mechanism that allows for an EMERGENCY Special General Meeting to be
called if 1/3 of riding associations petition for one. Thousands of people have signed up in support: we
now need more petitions from certain ridings to reach our goal.

Enclosed is the Take Back Our PC Party petition. Once you complete it, I need you to email a scan to join@
takebackourpcparty.com or mail it to Take Back Our PC Party, PO Box 40031 Dupont PO, Toronto, ON M5R
1V0. Remember, you must be a registered Ontario PC Party member to sign the petition. You can obtain a
membership at https://secure.ontariopc.com/Partyjoin.

This might be our last chance to x our Ontario PC Party.

Jim Karahalios
Jim Karahalios
on behalf of your Take Back Our PC Party Team.

P.S. Please consider completing the enclosed petition form to Take Back Our PC Party
and scan and email it to join@takebackourpcparty.com or mail it to Take Back Our PC Party,
PO Box 40031 Dupont PO, Toronto, ON M5R 1V0.

page 2 of 2

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Take Back Our PC Party, PO Box 40031 Dupont PO, Toronto, ON M5R 1V0

Sudbury by-election court decision could spell legal trouble for PC leader Patrick Brown
By Jim Karahalios and Kara Johnson
On October 24, 2017, Justice H. Borenstein of the Ontario
Court of Justice, in R. v. Lougheed, afrmed that a political
partys constitution sets out the process by which a person may
become [a partys] candidate at an election. Justice Borenstein
stated that a decision to appoint a Liberal Party candidate is the
prerogative of the leader within the limits imposed by the
Ontario Liberal Party constitution (emphasis added).
Justice Borenstein was referring to section 11.9 of the Liberal
Party constitution, which gives the Liberal leader sole and
unfettered discretion to appoint a candidate, without the need
for the holding of a nomination meeting.
By contrast, Article 6 of the Ontario PC Party constitution gives
the PC leader no such right to appoint candidates. Instead,
Article 6 confers the power of candidate selection on PC Party
members by declaring that nomination meetings shall be
held, and requires that such meetings be open, public, and
democratic.
So, how is it that Patrick Brown can claim that he personally
possesses the undemocratic power to appoint local candidates
of his own choosing?
The PC Party executive, led by president Rick Dykstra, rst
contravened the PC constitution in this matter in April 2016, by
inserting paragraph 18.2 into their Rules Governing Candidate
Nominations. Paragraph 18.2 is ultra vires, or beyond the
powers, of the PC Party executive for two reasons: it purports
to overrule Article 6 of the PC constitution by attempting to give
Brown, not party members, the ultimate say in selecting local PC
candidates; and it violates Article 9.9 of the PC constitution by
contradicting rather than being subject to the provisions of [the]
constitution.
On June 3, 2017, Brown rst deployed this rule change when
he personally intervened in a meeting of the PC Party executive
and decreed that he would be appointing a minimum of 64
candidates. Dykstra collaborated with Brown by then using
Browns proclamation as the basis for rendering moot another
constitutional requirement - that the PC Party executive consider
all outstanding nomination appeals (Article 27.6), including those
with evidence of ballot-stufng and other fraudulent activities.
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Take Back Our PC Party, PO Box 40031 Dupont PO, Toronto, ON M5R 1V0
November 1, 2017
Dykstra justied Browns decree with the spurious claim that
Brown had the legal responsibility and authority to determine
which candidates nominations papers he would sign. Indeed,
section 27(2)(h) of Ontarios Election Act does explicitly require
that a candidates nomination papers be signed by the leader
of a party as a statement that the prospective candidate is
endorsed by the party (emphasis added). But it is explicitly the
PC Partys mandate, not the leaders, to endorse candidates.
And, as Justice Borenstein noted, a partys process for selecting
its candidates is set out in that partys constitution.
Brown and Dykstra were wrong to falsely assert that Leader
Brown had the power to overrule, or ignore, the results of
local nominations, and to disregard whether they were done
in an open, public, and democratic process. By any reading,
democratic, in the context of the PC constitution, means the will
of PC Party members, not the will of the leader. In collaborating
to usurp the rights of PC Party members, Brown and Dykstra
also violated their own obligation to uphold this constitution
(Article 7.1).
To avoid possible court intervention, Brown should only sign
the nomination papers of individuals that have been selected
in accordance with the PC constitution; and open, public, and
democratic PC Party nominations must be held, or re-held
where necessary, in all ridings.
Justice Borensteins decision reminds us that a political party
leaders power to appoint candidates is derived from the partys
constitution. His statements make it clear that, although the
ability to appoint candidates may be a power that Leader Brown
wants, pursuant to Ontarios Election Act and the PC Party
constitution, it is a power that Leader Brown simply does not
have.
Jim Karahalios and Kara Johnson are lawyers and long-standing
members of the Ontario PC Party
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P a t r i c k Brown : Certied Liar
Excerpts from the article: PCs Nomination Watchdog Lacks Bite, Internal Documents Reveal,
October 26, 2017, Christopher Reynolds, QP Brieng (www.qpbrieng.com)
On the evening of June 26, 5,000 Progressive Conservatives
descended on a Scarborough recreation centre with a
400-person capacity to vote for their candidate in the local
nomination race.
Despite the turbulence, the Scarborough Centre nomination
was among the rst to come under the watch of a private
sector auditing rm. PC Leader Patrick Brown hired
PricewaterhouseCoopers in May to clamp down on alleged
irregularities and ease concerns over allegations of fraudulent
behaviour, including ballot-box tampering, in controversial
contests from Ottawa West-Nepean to Newmarket-Aurora and
Hamilton West-Ancaster-Dundas.
But a 16-page report by PwC on the Scarborough Centre
nomination makes no mention of police. It gives no hint of
the chaos referenced by the city nor of any threats and
observed voter fraud alleged by the majority of the PCs
Scarborough Centre board in a letter to party brass. The
report, obtained by QP Brieng, states that PwC had not been
engaged to validate election results. That stands in apparent
contrast to repeated remarks from Brown that PwC was hired
to validate or certify the nominations. They do certify our
process. I said I want PwC to certify the process that we have for
nominations and the voting and the counting of those votes, he
told QP Brieng Wednesday.
A letter from PwC to Tony Miele, chairman of the PC Ontario
Fund, which manages the partys cash, outlines the companys
function in observing and reporting on nomination votes. In
agreeing to perform the procedures, we have made no attempt
to assess the sufciency and appropriateness for your purposes;
as such an assessment is your responsibility, states the May
20 letter, obtained by QP Brieng. You are responsible for the
procedures to be performed and for ensuring these are sufcient
for your intended purpose.
Last week, Brown put It this way: Ultimately its up to me to
sign the nominees form, and I said I want PwC to give me that
assurance. Thats been a policy Ive taken. Im glad that its
public that we have this additional oversight ... The fact that
weve now set the gold standard for having additional oversight
at nominations is something that hopefully other parties can
adopt, he said Wednesday
That aligns with previous statements by Brown stressing the
above-board procedures the global rm would bring to meetings,
which have sometimes been described as undemocratic and
tainted by irregularities. Im only going to allow nominations
that are certied by PwC to proceed, Brown told Ottawa CFRA
radio host Rob Snow in May, according to the Toronto Star.
The email to Miele states PwC charges at least $5,000 per
nomination meeting. With more than 40 nominations to go
when the arrangement was drawn up, that amounts to at least
$200,000 scooped from the party war chest into the rms
account.
The partys use of PwC frustrated some Tories who called it a
mockery of independent oversight, and elicited rueful chuckles
in others. John Mykytyshyn, a PC political strategist with a long
history at both the provincial and federal levels, called the strict
limits on what PwC was commissioned to report improper,
unusual. That report doesnt seem to bear any resemblance
to solving the problem. Its making more problems, he said,
calling it laughable. Mykytyshyn said the fallout from alleged
nomination irregularities could mean a slow bleed of party
support, despite recent polls showing these kind of inside-
baseball accusations have little impact on voters. Every time a
mistake is made without corrective action, then damage is done,
he said, adding with a smile: Theres an old axiom that goes:
Justice must not only be done, it must be seen to be done.
PwC and PC party president Rick Dykstra declined to comment
on questions from QP Brieng around the Scarborough Centre
report and the broader contract. PwC noted in its report the
ballot-counting process was performed off-site, three days later,
at PC headquarters in Toronto and a handful of members whod
been unable to vote at the raucous meeting on June 26, voted
that day.

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 Petition Form
I, , am an Active Member of the
(print your name)

PC Constituency Association (the Association)

(name of riding)

Pursuant to the Associations constitution, I provide this formal notice in writing requesting the Associations Executive to call a special
general meeting of the Associations membership within 21 days (the Association SGM) of receiving at least 25 written notices
from Active Members.

Pursuant to the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario (PCPO) constitution (Constitution), specically Section 15.2, the purpose
of the above-mentioned Association SGM shall be to approve by general resolution of the Associations membership, a written petition
to be submitted by the Association to the Secretary of the PCPO calling on the PCPO executive to convene an emergency Special
General Meeting (as dened in the Constitution), within 105 days of the PCPO receiving the required number of Constituency
Association resolutions.

MEMBER INFORMATION (please print)

Email Address: Phone:

Residential Address:

City: Postal Code:

Mailing Address (if different):

City: Postal Code:

WITNESS OF MEMBERS SIGNATURE (anyone can witness)

Name of Active Member (please print) Name of Witness (please print)

Signature of Active Member Signature of Witness

Date: Date:

Once you have completed the form, please scan it and email it to join@takebackourpcparty.com and mail the original form to:
Take Back Our PC Party, PO Box 40031 Dupont PO, Toronto, ON M5R 1V0
If you cannot mail it, please email join@takebackourpcparty.com to have it picked up.

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HOW TO TAKE BACK
OUR PC PARTY?
STEP 1: Join the Ontario PC Party at
https://secure.ontariopc.com/Partyjoin
or call 1.800.903.6453

STEP 2: Complete and sign the petition on the back of this page

STEP 3: Use the enclosed envelope to mail the petition to:

Take Back Our PC Party
PO Box 40031, Dupont PO
Toronto, ON
M5R 1V0

STEP 4: Give the extra petition enclosed to a friend

- an Ontario resident of at least 14 years of age!

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Take Back Our PC Party, PO Box 40031 Dupont PO, Toronto, ON M5R 1V0