Conservative Party Leader Erin O’Toole has announced that he will be ejecting Hastings Lennox and Addington MP Derek Sloan from the Conservative caucus. The announcement comes after a report by Press Progress found that the MP accepted donations from Paul Fromm, who actively promotes white supremacy and is known as a neo-nazi.
In response to the donations accepted by Sloan, the Conservative Party communications team released a statement condemning the donations. “Mr. O’Toole is outraged that anyone would accept donations from this individual and will be looking into the matter,” O’Toole’s communications team said in a statement. In total, Sloan accepted $131 from the Fromm.
Shortly after condemning the donations, O’Toole released another statement announcing that he had initiated the process to remove Derek Sloan from the conservative party of Canada. “Derek Sloan’s acceptance of a donation from a well known white supremacist is far worse than a gross error of judgment or failure of due diligence,” said O’Toole.
In accordance with the Reform Act, I have initiated the process to remove Mr. Sloan from the Conservative Party of Canada caucus,” wrote O’Toole on January 18th. Sloan will no longer be permitted to run as a candidate for Canada’s Conservative party once the removal is finalized.
O’Toole previously supported keeping sloan in the party. While running for the Conservative party leadership in 2019, O’Toole promised to stop opponent Peter McKay from ejecting Sloan from the party.
In response to the allegations, MP Derek Sloan says that he was never aware of the donations. “On any given day we had upwards of hundreds of different donations, and my team, which was run in many cases by volunteers, processed cheques and other things. At no time was I ever aware of this donation,” Sloan said in a statement on his Twitter account.
Recently, Kingston City Council also voted against allowing Sloan to speak on a motion to support a federal bill supporting a ban against conversion therapy.
