Randy Warden pleads guilty to violating elections act in 2018 London, Ont. race

Former London, Ont., Ward 5 Councillor candidate Randy Warden has been ordered to pay a $3,000 fine after he pleaded guilty to violating the Municipal Elections Act in the city’s 2018 civic race.

The 62-year-old’s guilty plea was made during a virtual appearance before the Ontario Court of Justice on Wednesday afternoon.

In August 2020, the Ontario Provincial Police charged Warden with failing to identify himself on election campaign advertising.

The OPP charge came months after allegations of election misconduct made headlines in early 2020, when court documents suggested Warden and Ward 10 Coun. Paul Van Meerbergen had paid local public relations firm Blackridge Strategy to create fake and malicious websites targeting their competitors in the 2018 election.

Warden’s competitor at the time was Maureen Cassidy, who currently serves as city councillor for Ward 5, while Van Meerbergen faced former Ward 10 Coun. Virginia Ridley.

The websites first gained notoriety in October 2018 after Cassidy and Ridley went public about the misleading statements made about them.

The website targeting Cassidy claimed she couldn’t be trusted, citing her high-profile affair with former mayor Matt Brown, while the website targeting Ridley described her as a “colossal spendthrift” and “greedy” and accused her of child abuse for bringing her son to a lengthy budget meeting.

Van Meerbergen denied his alleged link to the scandal a day after the court documents emerged.

In a statement of facts read out by Crown attorney Jeremy Carnegie during Wednesday’s hearing, Warden is said to have commissioned and paid for fake signs and a fake website targeting Cassidy.

Carnegie also brought up emails between a graphic designer at Blackridge to the firm’s co-founder Amir Farahi, which contained a draft of the fake sign the graphic designer was assigned with creating.

“When (the graphic designer) created the signs, he included, ‘Paid for by Randy Warden,’ on the signs. Amir Farahi told him to remove that information and no reason was given,” Carnegie told the court.

This information, Carnegie said, was accessed through Norwich orders, which compels a third-party in a case to provide evidence in its possession which may be useful to the case.

Carnegie also mentioned that during an interview with police, Warden confirmed that he had hired and paid Blackridge to manage his campaign, giving them “freedom to act in his best interest.”

“He denied having knowledge in advance that it was going to be use for a smear campaign against Ms. Cassidy,” Carnegie added.

When Warden addressed the court, he said he “did not see or have knowledge of these sites or things, but the minute I became aware of them, I took ownership.”

“I did what I believed to be correct. My trust and faith in Blackridge was betrayed and I owned up to it,” Warden said.

“Your Honour, I regret where this went. My faith was misplaced and my trust was betrayed, and for this, I am humbly sorry.”

Failing to identify oneself on election campaign advertising carries a maximum fine of $20,000.

Carnegie sought a $5,000 fine, while Warden’s lawyer Gord Cudmore sought a penalty of $1,000. Cudmore cited a lack of precedence in the matter, as well as Warden’s character, lack of a criminal record and status as a military veteran.

Justice Ronald Minard decided on a $3,000 fine to be paid in 60 days.

“What you clearly failed to do was discharge your responsibilities to supervise adequately your campaign and, clearly, the critical aspect of retaining a public consultant firm to basically, if not run your campaign, certainly have a very material input in it,” Minard said.

“That is a serious failure to live up to – a reasonable duty that you had as a candidate to supervise the actions and instruct them in terms of the actions that they were to undertake on your behalf.”

Minard added that Cassidy was also forced to spend money and time to find out who was responsible for the website targeting her.

The decision drew satisfaction from John Hassan, a local citizen who filed a complaint after news broke of the malicious websites in the 2018 election.

Hassan has followed Warden’s case ever since a charge was laid by OPP.

“I think it’s good that the system worked,” Hassan said. “It should serve as a good warning for anybody that’s running in this campaign cycle to know the act and abide by the act.”

After running for Ward 5 in the 2014 and 2018 elections, Warden announced in July that he would not seek the seat for a third time in 2022.