Canada high court greenlights election interference lawsuit against Alberta ex

The Supreme Court of Canada has allowed former Alberta lawmaker Joseph Anglin to sue former provincial chief electoral officer Glen Resler for election interference. The ex-lawmaker is claiming damages of over CAD 2.2 million.

At issue is whether any law bars the lawsuit. As Anglin’s lawsuit admitted that he lost the 2015 provincial election result, the court held that his lawsuit was not a challenge to the result that the common law doctrine of collateral attack or Parliamentary privilege would have barred. The court also concluded that the provincial Elections Act deliberately permitted accusations of bad-faith conduct against the officer. As the lawsuit discloses reasonable claims of misfeasance in public office and trespass, the majority allowed it to proceed.

The court is, however, divided on whether an election candidate could claim damages for the loss of a chance to win an election. Justice Andromache Karakatsanis, penning the three-justice dissent, considered that the loss is not only difficult to ascertain its causative linkage with the alleged misconduct, but the adjudication of which is also detrimental to the integrity of the election and the legitimacy of the democratic institution.

However, Justices Malcolm Rowe and Suzanne Côté, in their concurring opinion, said the dissenting justices reached their conclusion prematurely because the parties had not yet made their submissions on the issue. They also opined that the court should refrain from rejecting claims on public policy grounds and respect the legislative decision to allow public misconduct claims in the election context.

In his lawsuit, Anglin claimed that Resler worked with his opponents and unjustifiably interfered with his electoral campaigns. Anglin sued Resler for misfeasance in public office–a tortious claim for the improper use of public power with ulterior motive–by removing his electoral signs, which Anglin claimed were legal. He argued that the removal denied him a fair election.

In 2022, the Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench struck Anglin’s claims for re-litigating the validity of the 2015 election, which the court had already upheld. The provincial Court of Appeal overturned the decision to strike Anglin’s claims in 2024.