Oakville’s Ward 7 councillor Nav Nanda appeared in Milton court on Monday Oct. 28, to ask an Ontario Superior Court judge to throw out an order that her campaign finances be audited.
The order came about after the town received a complaint about the councillor in the summer of 2023.
The complaint, from Ward 6 resident Gobinder Randhawa, claimed Nanda violated election financing rules by spending money on a website and election-related events that she did not declare on her financial statement.
Following a hearing, Oakville’s election compliance audit committee decided her election spending should be reviewed.
It ordered an audit of her finances during the 2022 municipal election that saw her unseat Pavan Parmar in a tight race for Oakville’s Ward 7 town and regional council seat.
Read more here: Campaign audit will show properly declared expenses, says Nanda
Nanda quickly announced that she would appeal the decision, and yesterday, had her day in court.
Nanda’s legal team argued that Gobinder Randhawa, the Ward 6 resident whose concerns launched the audit process, is not eligible to bring a complaint against a Ward 7 councillor.
Under Ontario’s Municipal Act, compliance audits can only be sought by "an elector who is entitled to vote in an election."
A "common sense" interpretation of those words suggests that only Ward 7 residents should be able to make a complaint to the committee, argued lawyer Rahool Agarwal.
Those are the people with a direct and vested interest in the election, he told Justice Marvin Kurz.
Without that limitation, Agarwal said, it could be claimed that any elector in Ontario is entitled to bring a complaint against any candidate across the province, potentially resulting in groundless and mischievous applications for audits.
In information filed with the court, Nanda noted that Gobinder Randhawa is the spouse of Jagandeep Randhawa, who worked with Parmar’s re-election campaign. Election financial statements also show Jagandeep Randhawa was also one of Parmar's largest campaign donors.
Nanda also alleges in her court documents that J. Randhawa specifically served as Parmar's campaign manager in the 2022 election, a claim which Randhawa says is untrue.
The audit committee -- an independent body of external experts appointed by the town prior to the election, for the sole purpose of dealing with complaints about election violations -- was represented in Milton court by lawyer John George Pappas.
He argued that the clause "an elector who is entitled to vote in an election" should be interpreted as including all Oakville electors eligible to vote in the municipal election, regardless of where they reside.
"An election does not refer to a specific race between candidates," he said, suggesting that the word election was an umbrella term identifying all of the races on a municipal ballot.
Pappas added that the broader interpretation is in keeping with the goal of creating a mechanism for candidates to be held accountable for their election finances.
The judge will issue his decision at some point in the future. Agarwal said the ruling would likely take months, rather than weeks.
If the judge rules that an audit should occur, an auditor will be appointed to review Nanda's finances.
A report on any potential violations of election finance law will be considered by the compliance audit committee, who will decide if Nanda should be prosecuted for any offences.
If found guilty of knowingly violating the rules, the Ward 7 councillor could be fined, forced from her seat and barred from running in the next municipal election.
Nanda declined to make any comment following the court hearing.