By now most of you have heard the news: 14 of our fellow Cortes residents filed a petition (Jan 2/3 2019) to initiate a lawsuit against our Regional Director, Noba Anderson.
The primary allegation made in this petition is that Noba Anderson solicited bribes and delivered kickbacks in return. A quote: Anderson took money from her constituents for personal gain and a number of those same constituents received gifts and grants in return. (Campbell River Mirror, Jan 7 2019). According to the signatories, this bribery took place in the late Spring of 2018; around that time a GoFundMe page was established by Lovena Harvey to ask the community for support for Noba after a family disaster. Noba's dad Bernie, an elderly man suffering from dementia who is now his daughter's ward, burned down his small cabin and was lucky to survive the fire; the cabin was completely destroyed, and so were all his possessions.
Money collected via the GoFundMe page was placed in a separate bank account in Bernie's name. Noba used it to cover part of the cost of adding a bedroom for Bernie to her house, so he could be warmer and better cared for while still having some privacy. 28 people contributed. Excluding a $1000 gift from a sibling who lives in Nelson, $2700 was raised locally to help Noba continue to house and care for Bernie under her own roof. The petitioners now allege that donors to this GoFundMe effort had connections to island organisations which at times receive GIA funds from SRD, and that Noba preferentially directed funding to these organisations in response to bribes received.
In response to this petition, probably before it was ever filed (this is speculation but the timeline is suggestive), SRD hired a private investigator to look into the "charges" against R/D Anderson:
Creative Solutions Risk Management Consulting
Craig Peterson
794-620 Helanton Road, Quathiaski Cove, BC V0P 1N0
778-349-4972
This petition has already done serious damage to our political process at SRD.
SRD Press Release
While its allegations are flimsy and its signatories known to be political or personal opponents of R/D Anderson, the petitioners may have achieved their goal not via litigation (where I personally believe them very unlikely to succeed), but by gumming up the works at SRD and preventing Cortes Island initiatives from moving forward. Even though still in office, R/D Anderson is effectively prevented from doing her job. Who are these 14 signatories?
Scrutineers List for Oct 2018 Election
Note that there is some overlap with the list of petitioners.
One election official (not scrutineer) is also a signatory.
(Note also that due to an error in communication, scrutineers Baron and Scholfield-Sweet were not informed that they had been appointed and did not serve at the polls on election day. Baron and Scholfield-Sweet were the only scrutineers supportive of R/D Anderson.))