Day 3

Note:  I am a poor note-taker and these summaries will contain errors and omissions which will reflect my limitations.  My intention is to report on the facts as accurately as possible although a subconscious bias may creep in.  I can only provide glimpses into what I see as relevant and interesting events. My goal is to capture the essence of the day’s events rather than be comprehensive.

Read the reference documents: The Legal Case and Events Leading to Trial to obtain an understanding of the case and its history.  Names and terms are abbreviated and defined in  Glossary.

Caylan again took the stand and continued testifying for the rest of the day.  She continued to explain that:

·      After she had learned of Jivraj’s dirty politics their friendship was severed, but she did occasionally communicate with him thereafter and tolerated his abusive ways because he had asked for her help and she tried to provide it;

·      When they ha been friends, Jivraj had told Caylan of a business in which he had been involved in the US that took money from customers but did not deliver as promised; he was concerned that his presence in Canada might become known to his victims;

·      In a later confrontational phone call between them, Jivraj accused her of being a traitor;

·      Jivraj moved to Calgary in May, 2017 and Caylan helped him find both employment and housing;

·      Jivraj ostensibly sought office as a Calgary federal MP candidate, and he raised funds from donors, but his supposed candidacy never appeared on any official party documents;

·      While on maternity leave Caylan was finishing her Masters thesis at Washington State U; the subject of the thesis was the crime of genocide;

·      She was also working on her Oxford degree in 2017 and tumultuous events were then occurring: the Syrian war and, in England, Brexit, immigration, immigrant criminal conduct, immigration backlash;

·      Caylan started thinking about returning to Calgary in 2016, she purchased a Calgary home in July 2017, took title to the home in October, and moved personal possessions to the house in December;

·      Caylan made 2 trips to Calgary in 2017, to coordinate renovations, to enroll her child in the Lycee, and to register with a midwifery as she was expecting her 2nd child;

·      To register for the midwifery Caylan needed to be an Alberta resident so she cancelled her Ontario drivers license and purchased an Alberta license; she considered herself an Alberta resident from that time forward;

·      Caylan developed an interest in becoming an electoral candidate in 2017, upon completing her move to Calgary in 2018, she talked to prominent Alberta Conservatives including Preston Manning;

·      Jason Kenney was then the leader of the UCP; Caylan attended an event at which he was speaking, asked questions in the Q and A, and talked with Kenney at the end of the meeting; the talk was about philosophy;

·      On a later date Caylan met with Kennedy and he encouraged her to seek a nomination to become a candidate; he told her that she would have to compete in a nomination contest to win the nomination; they discussed ridings and Caylan expressed a preference for Mountainview;

·      Caylan explained the candidate nomination process to the court and explained that it requires a majority vote of Party members in the constituency;

·      Caylan entered the nomination contest to become a candidate in Mountain;

·      Caylan read aloud an exhibit which was an email to her from Jivraj in which he stated that he was consumed by jealousy of Caylan and her accomplishments;

·      In March, 2018, Caylan attended a fund-raiser for the Party; Jivraj was present;

·      After the fundraiser, Alan Hallman (a power broker in UCP circles) invited some of those who had attended to an “after-party” at his house;

·      Both Caylan and Jivraj attended the after-party; he became drunk and asked Caylan to drive him home; during the drive home he told Caylan that those attending the after party hated her; she didn’t believe him;

·      Jivraj sent Caylan an email acknowledging that he was an asshole and apologizing; {click HERE to view]

·      Phil Schuman (“Phil”) was a Party nomination candidate in a different riding; he called Caylan and told her that he had heard rumours that she, Caylan, had accused him, Phil, of sexual harassment;

·      Caylan categorically denied the allegation and asked for his source; Phil disclosed that the source was Jivraj;

·      Phil then sent Caylan copies of the texts written by Jivraj saying that Caylan had made the allegations and Caylan realized that she had become a target of Jivraj;

·      Jivraj called Caylan and she, for the first and only time in her life, recorded the conversation;

·      The taped conversation was played aloud in court;

·      In the taped conversation, Caylan accused Jivraj of: making pernicious statements about her, disseminating vicious rumours, and having ulterior motives; she asked why he had said that she was a racist bigot and that people hated her;

·      Jivraj fervently denied Caylan’s accusations;

·      Caylan then told him that she had copies of the texts he had sent to Phil; she added that she didn’t want any part of him;

·      Caylan testied that Jivraj was a person of “habitual mendacity”;

·      Shortly thereafter, Phil suggested a meeting between the 3 of them and they agreed to meet at Merchants restaurant; Jivraj showed up late and drunk and offered Caylan a gift which she refused;

·      When confronted with the evidence, Jivraj asked all of them to put their phones on the table so there would be no recording;

·      Jivraj then explained that his malfeasance was a result of his alcoholism and acknowledged that he had been the source of the rumour about Caylan, he said that he was intending to go to AA and that Caylan had been the only person that had been kind to him;

·      Jivraj continued drinking through the meeting, incurred about $70 in alcohol expense and refused to pay at the end of the meeting;

·      After the meeting, at about 3:00 AM, Jivraj sent Caylan a stream of abusive texts accusing her of being a traitor and demanding that she delete the string of Messages they had exchanged;

·      Caylan did delete all of the Messages, and blocked Jivraj;

·      Later in March, Jivraj called Caylan and asked her to attend an AA meeting with him; she declined and recommended that he get a sponsor;

·      Caylan was obliged to inform her employer, the federal government, if she would be engaging in partisan politics, and she did so;

·      Caylan’s second baby was born;

·      Caylan developed a friendship with Sadiq, who was experienced in managing political campaigns and owned a polling company;

·      With the help of Sadiq and other volunteers Caylan developed and organized a campaign;

·      Caylan started door knocking and through the course of the campaign knocked on many thousand doors, more than any other candidate;

·      Caylan intended to use the domain name caylanford.ca for her campaign website;

·      She learned on May 2 that someone had purchased the domain name caylanford.ca  

·      After spending $1,000 investigating, she learned that it was Jivraj that had purchased the domain name;

·      She communicated with Jivraj and asked him to relinquish the name; he refused;

·      Caylan started a costly arbitration proceeding to get the domain name and ultimately Jivraj agreed to let her use her own name;

·      To enter the nomination contest Caylan needed 100 signatures from Party members in Mountainview; she started door knocking and selling memberships and obtained the necessary signatures;

·      She became a nomination candidate; raised $18K in campaign funds, recruited a strong volunteer team; printed campaign literature;

·      Caylan didn’t see Jivraj from late April until July, when he invited her to his campaign launch at Pete Club. She declined and wished him well.

·      A friend who had become involved in Jivraj’s campaign told Caylan that Jivraj was going to take over the Mountainview constituency board and destroy her;

·      The Mountainview constituency was a new constituency for the Party and had to become organized;

·      A Mountainview inauguration meeting was held and Jivraj was there with Hlady (see Glossary) who had once been an MLA in the riding and had some support;

·      Jivraj and Hlady “packed” the inauguration meeting and managed to elect Jivraj as a director and as president of Caylan’s Mountainview constituency board of directors; 

·      Jivraj then wrote a letter and then duped 9 members of the constituency board into signing it;

·      The letter is a key exhibit which can be viewed; {click HERE to view]

·      Later one of the duped board members wrote to Caylan, explaining that he was duped, apologizing, and telling of his suspicions of Jivraj; {click HERE to view]

·      The letter is a “Formal Conduct Complaint” and “Request for Investigation” into Caylan as a nomination candidate;

·      Both the letter and the Membership Application attached to it misstate the UCP eligibility rules

·      The letter then states that if both the misstated rules, and the facts stated about Caylan were correct,Caylan deliberately misrepresented herself to the Party and attempted to fraudulently circumvent Party rules; referred to Caylan as a “parachute candidate”;

·      The letter then goes on to pose a series of questions based on the assumption that the former statements about Caylan were true;

·      The letter is signed by the 9 members of the board but was not signed by Jivraj;

·      Jivraj widely circulated the letter on social media and arranged for its publication in Press Progress;

·      Caylan testified at length itemizing the falsehoods in the letter;

·      She explained that Jivraj’s statement of party rules was wrong;

·      The statement about her residency was wrong;

·      The term “parachute candidate” has 3 constituent elements which she stated

·      She did not have any of the 3 constituent elements;

·      Jivraj sent the letter to Press Progress, to the Calgary Herald, and to the CBC;

·      Press Progress published the letter but neither the Herald nor the CBC published it;

·      A Herald reporter talked to Caylan and she explained the falsity of the letter and the Herald did not publish

·      Caylan investigated and learned that Press Progress was in fact the Broadbent Institute, committed to the election of “progressive” (NDP) candidates;

·      Press Progress never identified the authors of its publications; never stated that the allegations were unproven; in articles about Caylan, they identified Caylan with disqualified candidates, suggesting that she should be disqualified;

·      Press Progress published the letter on October 13; they lighlighted  certain portions for emphasis;

·      No indication in Press Progress article that allegations were unproven;

·      The Press Progress article is still live on the Press Progress website;

Caylan introduced into evidence many derogatory publications about her; one of the many trial exhibits is at Tab 4: {click HERE to view].

Another: Tab 5 {click HERE to view].  

·      Caylan went thru the letter paragraph by paragraph and identified each of the many false statements or innuendos it contained; she told why they false;

·      Caylan wrote to the Party requesting an investigation about the letter and asking for the public removal of Jivraj as president and a member of the board;

·      The Party, after investigation, wholly cleared Caylan and confirmed that she was a legitimate candidate, but they did not remove Jivraj because the Party had due process requirements to remove constituency board members and those requirements could not be satisfied;

·      Also on Oct. 13, Lucia Corbella, a Herald columnist, wrote a very favorable profile of Caylan.

Court adjourned.

Comment

·      The taped conversation played aloud in court was shocking; it clearly demonstrated that Jivraj was a liar;

·      The day’s testimony was a compelling story of treachery.