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A couple of “primary sources” which will likely be a useful reference down the road:

First, the “charging document” laid before the Ontario Court of Justice in which the Conservaitve Party of Canada, Senators Irving Gerstein and Doug Finley and two former party officials, Susan Kehoe and Michael Donison, are accused of violating Canada's election laws.

Charge Sheet for Conservative Party, Doug Finley, Irving Gerstein, Susan Kehoe, and Michael Donison

Second: The 57-page “Reasons for Judgement” released by the Federal Court of Appeal when it overruled a Federal Court of Canada judge in deciding that Chief Electoral Officer was right to withhold rebates for the expenses at the heart of the “in-and-out” affair. This Federal Court case is a different one than the case that will be heard at the Ontario Court of Justice. But though the issues before the court are different, both sides are expected to rely on some of the same evidence and some of the same arguments at the court of justice.

Federal Court of Appeal Reasons for Judgment (In-and-Out_

Immigration Minister Jason Kenney has long been leading a concerted effort by the Conservative Party to reach out to first-generation Canadians, a group of immigrants that have historically been more likely to vote Liberal than Conservative. Kenney has had some success but, as the Conservatives now recognize in an accidentally leaked presentation, “Data Proves Hunch: We Are Losing” though, “We Are Losing Less Badly Now.”

For example: According to the data in the presentation, the Conservatives were once winning just 17.9 per cent of the vote in those polls in the Toronto with a 416 area code where 40 per cent of voters are Chinese. By the 2008, general election, the Conservatives had nearly doubled their support in those same polls to 33.3 per cent — a strong improvement but not enough to steal seats.

The Conservatives want to do better in the next general election which — as you'll see in the presentation below — they believe will begin in late March. And so the Conservatives are/were all set with a radio and television advertising strategy that would have a “heavy deployment” beginning on March 15 and running for two weeks. That information comes on a page – page 17 below — that is titled “TV Buy Costs – Pre Writ”, an indication that the Conservatives, at least, believe the country will be into a general election campaign two weeks after this ad buy starts. Any ad spending between now and the writ period, of course, doesn't count against the spending limits imposed during a campaign.

A note on the provenance of the information below: The information was distributed to members of the Parliamentary Press Gallery by the NDP. The NDP came to be in possession of this information because it and a cover letter seeking some help for a $200,000 fundraising campaign to pay for these ads was accidentally addressed and hand-delivered to NDP MP Linda Duncan who happens to have the same last name as Conservative MP John Duncan. The original set of documents from the NDP contained 29 pages but many of the pages were duplicates. I have removed the duplicate pages and presented these documents as distributed by the NDP. So far, we have heard nothing from the Conservatives to suggest these documents have been altered or are fake. Indeed, in a talking point memo distributed by the Conservative Party yesterday to all of its MPs, the Conservatives appear to make no apologies for this kind of approach to winning the support of “cultural communities”.

Jason Kenney presentation – Building the Conservative brand in cultural communities

One of Immigration Minister Jason Kenney’s political aides was forced to resign Thursday after accidentally sending confidential Conservative campaign strategies and a request for $200,000 in campaign funds to an NDP MP. The employee, Kasra Nejatian, had been Kenney’s director of multicultural affairs.

This evening Conservative MPs got the following message in their in-box from the Conservative Party of Canada message center/info-bot:

Today, a letter regarding Conservative Party business was mistakenly printed on House of Commons letterhead. The letter encourages riding associations to make a financial commitment for the next election.

• This is very serious and unacceptable.
• The employee responsible for this matter has offered the Minister his resignation and the Minister has accepted it.
• Minister Kenney has taken responsibility for this and has apologized for his former employee's actions.
• Using parliamentary or government resources for partisan activities is completely unacceptable.
• Minister Kenney will be raising this matter with the Speaker of the House, the Ethics Commissioner and the Board of Internal Economy.

If asked if Minister Kenney instructed this employee to send this letter:

• Minister Kenney gave the instruction to have riding associations contacted.
• But as is always the case in these matters, he fully expected that this would be done after hours and on the appropriate letterhead.
• As previously stated, this employee has offered Minister Kenney his resignation and Minister Kenney has accepted it.

If asked on the purpose of the deck:

• Since its creation, the new Conservative Party has made earning the support of Canadians of all ethnic backgrounds a priority.
• We will continue this important work and will make no apologies for it.