On Monday, November 3, 2022, Christopher Richardson is to be sworn in as a trustee of Vancouver School Board.
Here's the problem: Allowing Richardson to take office would ignore that he solemnly swore that he was “not disqualified” for office when in fact, he was disqualified, and he must have known it. This would make a mockery of our democratic process, and specifically of the eligibility requirements which are put in place to ensure that candidates for public office are qualified and trustworthy.
Christopher Richardson, Trustee-Elect for the Vancouver School Board, is deemed an “illegible individual” by CRA and is prohibited from serving as a director of any registered charity in Canada for a period of five years, beginning in 2018. Since the Vancouver School Board is a registered charity, it follows that Mr. Richardson is not eligible to be a trustee of Vancouver School Board.
Richardson seems to have understood what "ineligible" means given that after he was deemed "ineligible," he resigned from 15 charities. From ten charities, he resigned within the span of three days. From eight charities, he resigned on the same day, April 16, 2019. On average, Richardson had been a director of these charities for more than ten years.
In a letter sent October 26, 2022 to Richardson, I put to Mr. Richardson a long list of questions including why he resigned from so many charities, all on the same day. He did not reply.
Last summer, on August 22, 2022, Christopher Richardson signed his application to run for school board trustee. Assuming that he followed the application process, he will have had to solemnly swear his candidate declaration in front of a Commissioner for taking affidavits.
As part of the candidate declaration, presumably, Richardson will have solemnly sworn that he is "not disqualified" from taking office "by the School Act or any other enactment." And yet, Mr. Richardson is disqualified from being a trustee of Vancouver School Board, and he must have known it, as evidenced by the fact that he resigned from 15 charities after having been deemed “ineligible” by CRA. In fact, it should have been fresh in his mind.
On July 21, 2022, CRA sent a letter to a charity of which Richardson is a founding director and was a director since 2006, Headwaters Foundation. In that letter, CRA specifically raises the issue of Richardson's ineligibility.
A month later, on August 22, 2022, Christopher Richardson solemnly swore that he is "not disqualified.” In fact, he was disqualified at that time.
But who knew any of this? A few people did, but not many. None of the 15 charities from which Richardson resigned, except CHIMP, have a public presence of any kind.
According to the School Act, the first three words of the Oath of Office are "I am qualified." But how can Richardson solemnly swear those three words given, “I am qualified,” given that he has been deemed “ineligible?”
Taking all of this into consideration, on November 3, 2022, I sent a letter to Rosemary Hagiwara, Chief Election Officer at the City of Vancouver, asking her to disallow Trustee-Elect Christopher Richardson from taking office on the grounds that he was not eligible to stand for election in the first place, and he must have known it, as evidenced by his own actions.
Letters to Rosemary Hagiwara, Chief Election Officer, City of Vancouver
- Letter #1, November 3, 2022
- Letter #2, November 4, 2022
- Letter #3, November 4, 2022
Comments