An anonymous fax sent in support of a candidate on the day of Monday's election in the Northwest Territories has come back to haunt its sender, an employee of the Diavik diamond mine.
Diavik Diamond Mines Inc. confirmed that it's taking disciplinary action against the employee, who sent out a fax at 9:51 a.m. MT on polling day, urging recipients to vote for Monfwi candidate and former MLA Henry Zoe.
The fax also blasted the record of incumbent MLA Jackson Lafferty, who ended up winning, with 54 per cent of the vote. Zoe came in second, with 46 per cent.
The one-page fax, which came from "Diavik Site Services," alleged that Lafferty missed too many sessions of the last legislative assembly, and said he "wasn't reliable or dependable" and "wasn't responsible."
It also cited a controversial incident in the spring, in which Lafferty asked a Yellowknife judge to be lenient towards a constituent convicted of sexual assault. Lafferty apologized for that action in May.
"We need someone with more experience that will help our people," the fax said of Zoe, who was MLA from 2003 to 2005, when he resigned after being convicted of resisting arrest. Lafferty won a byelection shortly thereafter.
Diavik spokesman Tom Hoefer said the company has determined who sent the fax, but does not feel it is appropriate to release that person's name.
"We hope that it's dealt with, once we've taken disciplinary action on the employee," Hoefer said Tuesday.
"The other thing that we're doing is we're also just making everybody aware of this yet again, that these are actions that are inappropriate to be taken at our mine site."
Company officials also contacted people who were sent the fax and told them the company was not involved in sending it. They also alerted Elections N.W.T. to the matter.
The Monfwi district includes Diavik's diamond mine, located in Lac de Gras, about 300 kilometres northeast of Yellowknife.
Lafferty feels fax cost him votes
Lafferty told CBC News he felt the anonymous fax hurt his results in the community of Behchoko, where Zoe received more votes.
"Overall, I won the election, so that's the main thing. But people did take those into consideration, unfortunately," he said Wednesday.
"They should have just called me up and said, 'Is this true? Is this true?' But they just heard one side of the story and that was it."
Lafferty said he wants to set the record straight by holding public forums in the Tlicho aboriginal communities that make up his district, including Behchoko.
Officials with Elections N.W.T. said they have not received any complaints about the fax, and will not investigate unless someone makes one.
But Behchoko Chief Leon Lafferty said he's meeting with Diavik officials late Wednesday afternoon. If he is not satisfied with how the company is handling the issue, he said, he will name Diavik in a complaint he may file with the chief electoral officer.
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