, 05.10.2022 11:14 AM

My latest: OLP’s “SlapMineNuts” candidate is slapped – out

SlapMineNutsMC’ has been slapped — right out as an Ontario Liberal candidate.

Following an exclusive report in the Toronto Sun, Sudbury-area high school student, Aidan Kallioinen, has been told he will not be permitted to run as a candidate for the Ontario Liberals in Sault Ste Marie in the June 2 election.

Responding to this newspaper, Andrea Ernesaks, the party’s press secretary wrote: “These reports were not disclosed to us in the vetting process. We have spoken to Mr. Kallioinen and have informed him that he will not be running as part of our Liberal team.”

The “reports” Ernesaks refers to, and which reported earlier in the Sun, revealed that Kallioinen referred to himself in online chats as “SlapMineN___MC” and had participated in discussions where participants joked about people “dying of AIDS.” The Sun has not verified whether Kallioinen was one of the participants joking.

The former Liberal candidate was chosen over Naomi Sayers, an experienced and respected Indigenous lawyer. Sayers has been legal counsel to one of the largest electricity providers in Canada, and is called to the bar in Ontario and Alberta.

She has appeared before courts and tribunals at all levels. Her work has been cited at the Supreme Court of Canada, and she has been a university professor at Algoma University.

Kallioinen, meanwhile, was a Grade 11 student at Lo-Ellen Park Secondary in Sudbury, three hours’ drive from the Soo. Del Duca’s Liberals refused Naomi Sayer’s application — and made Kallioinen their chosen candidate.

They did so on Monday night, news outlet Soo Today reported, with 16 minutes notice given to local Liberals. “Aidan Kallioinen will be acclaimed as the candidate of the Ontario Liberal Party in the electoral district of Sault Ste. Marie,” declared Mike Cavanaugh and Jordan Hudyma in an email sent to party members.

The appointment contradicted Del Duca’s own pronouncements about elevating female candidates to the legislature. Just a few weeks ago, Del Duca issued a statement on International Women’s Day, and said: “Ontario Liberals will fight to make sure our province has an equitable recovery. We are also committed to ensuring that come this June, at least 50% of our candidates are women.”

Except, in the case of Indigenous female lawyer Naomi Sayers, many Ontario Liberals felt, Del Duca wasn’t very “equitable.” He chose a white male high school student instead.

Sayers is active on social media. In the past, she did sex work, which she has not hidden. The law societies of Ontario and Alberta evidently weren’t concerned, because they both admitted her to the bar.

Nor did the Ontario Liberals ever raise Sayers’ sex worker past with her.

Instead, they denied her candidacy because she disclosed too much material to them.

Charrissa Klander, the “nomination commissioner” for the Ontario Liberals, wrote to Sayers and said: “Given the fact that we are days away from the election being called, and we will be unable to complete full vetting, I am writing to advise you that I have instructed staff to stop further review of your nomination application.”

There was an “enormous volume of material” provided by Sayers, Klander complained.

So, Sayers was out. A few days later, the Ontario Liberals picked young Aidan Kallioinen, who had scrubbed his own social media — but not all of it. Now he’s out, too.

Naomi Sayers is now running as independent in Sault Ste. Marie. She’s expressed sadness about what Steven Del Duca’s party did to her.

“People are upset and not happy with how the party treated me. Those are the facts — I can’t change the facts,” says Sayers. “But I am happy to have my name on the ballot as an independent candidate, and I’m looking forward to participating in the democratic process to bring a voice for Sault Ste. Marie to the legislature.”

– Kinsella ran the Ontario Liberal war room in 2003, 2007 and 2011, and has been an adjunct professor at the University of Calgary’s Faculty of Law.

14 Comments

  1. Robert White says:

    The Ontario Liberal leader Del Duca is obviously much more comfortable enlisting a misogynist white male that has the exact same level of maturity that Del Duca has as a rudderless leader driving the Liberal Minivan of seatless Liberals on an uphill climb to the office of premier.

    Del Duca chose the immature white male in high school because he identifies with that sort of #Slapmynuts behaviour, but when it comes to social activists holding law degrees and those who are building a law practice he wants as far away from that as he can get.

    Del Duca obviously has a major problem with strong women litigators that don’t share his brand of misogyny as a Liberal leader driving the Liberal Minivan of seatless Liberals.

    Del Duca obviously made that choice as a ‘leader’ because he did not want to address the real issues northern residents are facing.

    Del Duca is just pretending to be the Liberal ‘leader’. He knows it’s an act lacking in substance and that’s why he took the non-substantive tack that he did.

    In brief, Del Duca is not really a leader at all. He just pretends to lead so that he does not have to collect welfare. or look for work.
    RW

  2. PJH says:

    Wow….just wow…..there are plenty of professionals out there who have claimed to have done sex work to help pay their living expenses and fees while attending university….a lot of whom who graduated without any student debt. I call that smart….I applaud Ms. Sayers for her candor, her honesty and her courage….the last of which seems to be sorely lacking in Mr. Del Duca….sad….

  3. the salamander says:

    .. Well now
    If that’s the Party or Local Liberal Electoral Association’s rationale.. best she gets to steer clear now. Sounds hinky.. big obvious undercurrents .. bad medicine..
    Glad to hear she’s just pressing on elsewhere..
    though seems a plain shame

    It does remind too of the Conservative Riding Electorate Associations across Canada ensuring an Evangelical Candidate wins uber alles

    Not sure at all.. just what’s ‘democratic’ about these kinds of local partisan coup d’état demeanour

    I say this, not knowing anything re the Riding though.. historic or contemporary times

  4. Steve T says:

    I agree that Sayers should have been the candidate.

    However, it is because of her accomplishments, experience, and intelligence – and the fact that her questionable choice of vocation many years ago should be irrelevant. Comparing her to a naive teenager is no contest.

    However, her gender and race are also irrelevant. If the tables were turned, and it were an experienced white male lawyer with an old sex-industry history, versus a naive teenage Indigenous girl, I would take the same view as to the best candidate. I’m tired of identity politics, on both sides of the coin.

  5. R. Marut says:

    Socialism always degrades to fascism.

  6. Warren,

    Maybe he should change his name from Del Duca to Del Dumb Dumb…and this guy actually thinks he comes off as a credible alternative to Ford? Not anymore, after this beaut.

    • Pipes says:

      Is a Power Pimp better or worse than a sex trade worker?

      More like Del Puke-a to me. Sayers would have been and will be amazing. I wish her the best.

  7. Todd Robson says:

    I won a contest once.

    First prize was one night with free accommodations and everything included in Sault Ste. Marie.

    Guess what second prize was?

    Two nights …

    That sums up SSM politics in one bad joke.

  8. Murphy's Raw says:

    According to the NP article, quoting or paraphrasing Ms Sayers herself, her real sin is that she has been vocally critical of the PM. THAT seems to be the line that cannot be crossed in today’s Liberal Party; sad that it extends to OLP and isn’t just a feature of LPC.

    • Murphy’s Raw,

      Criticize God’s gift to Canadian politics? Absolute perfection on two feet? I mean, I never. LOL.

      Fucking Liberals: what a collective bunch of ass kissers, boot lickers and brainless twits. And that’s on their best day. You don’t see their GUTLESS caucus rising in revolt against this prime ministerial embarrassment…

  9. Robert White says:

    Cross-Cultural Discrimination, Victimization of Aboriginal Canadians is occuring vis-a-vis Del Duca’s Liberal Party unprofessional so-called ‘leadership’. He is engaged in Systematic Historical Victimization of Aboriginal politcians/Social Activist Lawyers that are
    professionally attempting to enter the political arena via legislatures & our democratic process because people like Del Duca don’t actually believe in democracy as colonizers to white non-Aboriginal racist Liberal Party views of white patriarchy.

    This link is a good read on Cross-Cultural Discrimination & Victimization of Aboriginal Canadians. It’s a 2021 paper.

    https://justice.gc.ca/eng/rp-pr/aj-ja/rr06_vic1/p9.html

    RW

  10. william shakesfeare says:

    To quote the late great George Carlin

    “so this is it huh folks.”
    “we’ve been here two hundred thousand years and this is the best we can do.”

  11. Phil in London says:

    Bad a this example, there seems to be a poorly vetted candidate a day for the OLP.

    Liberal rot is sad because I could really buy a liberal party that stood up to the promises

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