Remember when O'Toole first won the CPC leadership race, we said that it was a victory but that we would need to hold his feet to the fire to remind him who put him over the top?

Well, he is officially in need of a stern reminder.

He just came out with a statement saying that he was initiating proceedings to remove Derek Sloan from the Conservative Party of Canada's caucus and banning him from running for the party.

The reason for this heavy-handedness? Apparently, Derek Sloan (a stalwartly pro-life leadership contestant in the last CPC leadership race) received a donation from a particularly unpleasant racist individual (Paul Fromm who once held a radio show for the Neo-Nazi Stormfront website). This donation was made under a disguised name.

Furthermore, this donation was cleared through the CPC's own internal donation processing mechanism (10% of it went to the party's own coffers). Upon learning of this donation (less than $200), Sloan immediately took steps to ensure the donation was returned.

However, Sloan only heard about the contribution after O'Toole had already decided to put his political career in front of a firing squad. As of this moment, the CPC staffers who processed the donation are yet to be held accountable (which is fair, because how could they possibly know?), which just shows how much of a kangaroo court the whole proceeding actually is.

If this was about fighting white supremacy, then Sloan should be cleared. He did the right thing and he did it right away.

However, this was never about fighting the contemptible cancer of white supremacy. This was about using political cover to shiv a principled man. We know this because the donation was never made public (no donations under $250 are made public) so it had to have been uncovered and leaked by someone inside the Conservative Party of Canada's HQ. In other words, an Opposition Research Specialist was told (likely by O'Toole himself) to find dirt on Sloan. This flimsy excuse for an accusation was the best that could be found.

Then, to make matters worse, O'Toole became judge, jury, and executioner without allowing Sloan to present any sort of defense. This whole thing is a sham especially because O'Toole, as a lawyer, should know better.

Thankfully, in order for O'Toole to remove Sloan from caucus, the rest of caucus must first vote. This means that we urgently need you to send your MP (and O'Toole) an email asking them to vote against removing Sloan from caucus.

You can find your MP's contact info (everyone in Alberta except those in Edmonton - Strathcona is represented by a Conservative MP) here.

You can find a sample email here.

Erin O'Toole's email address is: [email protected] 

Please take two minutes and write an email.  Let the CPC know that this kind of underhanded smear tactics against principled politicians will not be tolerated.