VII. Reform Party

This section reviews the wide-ranging allegations that a CSIS informant took actions that were designed to discredit the Reform Party of Canada. The Reform Party asked us to investigate these allegations and to answer a large number of associated questions. To respond adequately to the Reform Party's request, we have had to conduct an unusually broad investigation and have explored all leads which came to our attention. We have attempted to provide as complete and as accurate an account of what took place as the available information allows.

On April 6, 1991, the Reform Party of Canada, at its Fourth Annual Convention in Saskatoon decided to expand into Ontario and the Maritimes. The decision would be ratified by a referendum of the members the following month. Reform Party (RP) officials had already been at work in Ontario to raise public interest in the Party and they were setting up interim riding associations.[1]

Clifford Fryers, Chairman and Chief Operating Officer of the Reform Party of Canada explained that when the Party began to move into Ontario, a constituency association could be formed in that province with only 40 members.[2] The Party feared take-over attempts in its early years, Fryers said, and they had been concerned about "pockets" of Western extremists, such as Terry Long in Caroline, Alberta.[3]

Fryers emphasized to the Review Committee that the tenets of the Reform Party are that all people are created equal and that the values of the white supremacists are not acceptable to the Party.[4]

Continued

Footnotes

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