Jamie Lall asks judge to overturn ban on running for office, blames late filing on depression
Controversial, want-to-be Alberta politician Jamie Lall was back in court on Wednesday, fighting to have a judge reconsider the decision to uphold a five-year ban from running for office.
Lall, who ran as an independent in the 2015 provincial election after being rejected as a Progressive Conservative candidate, argued he was suffering from depression when he filed his financial statements from that election eight days late. The late filing triggered an automatic ban.
Though Lall did not seek treatment or a diagnosis, his lawyer Brad Findlater said Lall had become a recluse, distancing himself from friends and family, unable to focus or adhere to deadlines.
"Mr. Lall was in a state of depression," Findlater said.
The reason Lall didn't seek professional help was because of the social stigma associated with mental illness and the sometimes-negative effects of prescription drugs, said the lawyer.
Lall had been approved as a nomination candidate in the March 2016 byelection for the Calgary-Greenway riding. Just days before the PCs made their selection, he sought an exemption through the court at an urgent hearing presided over by Court of Queen's Bench Justice William Tilleman.
Three days before Tilleman's decision to uphold the five-year ban was released, Lall still ended up on the ballot, which Prabhdeep Gill ultimately won.
Tilleman denied Lall's application for relief from the ban because the late filing was not the result of circumstances beyond the control of the candidate or his financial officer.
"It was their fault, and theirs alone," Tilleman said.
Lall worried about media attention
At that February 2016 hearing, there was no mention of Lall's mental state.
Now, letters of support written by Lall's parents and business partner have been filed, confirming he was in a depressed state at the time.
Findlater said evidence of Lall's mental health wasn't brought up at the first hearing ahead of the byelection because he was worried about media attention.
Lall did not file any medical evidence at Wednesday's hearing.
Bill Shores, the lawyer for the chief electoral officer who imposed the ban on Lall, said when issues of health come up, "they are proven through experts."
Lall's chief financial officer was also banned from running for office for five years, though Findlater told the judge that Shubkearn Sihota had simply volunteered his name as CFO but Lall was supposed to take care of his own financial records.
Lall's previous controversies
New legislation allows for a grace period of 10 days for those who file late, which would trigger a $500 fee but not an automatic prohibition on running. Though the legislation is not retroactive, the spirit of it could be considered by Tilleman.
Tilleman said he would issue his decision sometime before the end of October.
Lall has been at the centre of several controversies, including being dumped as the PC candidate in Chestermere-Rockyview by late-night text message in 2015, and subsequently starting a war of words with the party.
After those texts were released, an old restraining order against Lall surfaced. In that order, an ex-girlfriend of Lall's said he was "extremely, verbally abusive towards me and my family," but told CBC in 2015 that the two were "diplomatically civil."
