PoliticsMP Jaime Battiste has received four fines for election rule violations stemming back to his run for the Liberal nomination in his Nova Scotia riding in 2019.Jaime Battiste received 4 fines totalling $600, commissioner found mitigating factorsDarren Major · CBC News · Posted: Nov 06, 2025 3:23 PM EST | Last Updated: 4 hours agoListen to this articleEstimated 2 minutesThe audio version of this article is generated by text-to-speech, a technology based on artificial intelligence.Liberal MP Jaime Battiste was fined for four violations, including personally donating more than the maximum limit to his campaign. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press)MP Jaime Battiste has received four fines for election rule violations stemming back to his run for the Liberal nomination in his Nova Scotia riding in 2019.Federal Elections Commissioner Caroline Simard announced that Battiste had been fined a total of $600 for four violations, including personally donating more than the maximum limit to his campaign, accepting campaign donations into his personal bank account, personally paying for a number of campaign expenses and returning a declaration to Elections Canada that contained false or misleading information.Individuals are only allowed to donate $1,600 to a political candidate or party per year, but candidates themselves can donate an additional $1,000. Simard found that during the nomination process, Battiste had donated more than $4,000 to his campaign.Battiste also accepted more than $8,000 in donations to his personal bank account before transferring the funds to his campaign’s account. As per Canada’s election rules, only a candidate’s financial agent can accept campaign donations.A financial agent is also the only one allowed to issue payment for campaign expenses. But Simard found that Battiste paid for a number of expenses — totalling more than $700 — using his personal credit card.Battiste told CBC News in a statement that both he and his financial agent made “mistakes” during the 2019 nomination process “and every effort was made to correct them to the greatest extent possible.”“I have learned from the mistakes made during the initial Liberal nomination process in 2019, have since run in three successful elections and was greenlit as a candidate for leadership 2025, for which I am immensely proud,” he said.Simard lowered the amount of the four fines due to mitigating factors, including that the MP co-operated with the commissioner’s investigation. Battiste said the fines have been paid in full.ABOUT THE AUTHORDarren Major is a senior writer for CBC’s parliamentary bureau in Ottawa. He previously worked as a digital reporter for CBC Ottawa and a producer for CBC’s Power & Politics. He holds a master’s degree in journalism and a bachelor’s degree in public affairs and policy management, both from Carleton University. He also holds master’s degree in arts from Queen’s University. He can be reached at darren.major@cbc.ca.
Cape Breton MP fined for 4 election rule violations stemming from 2019 nomination
