Amir Farahi, Blackridge, fake websites: What councillors are saying

It's the talk of city hall. 

Court documents released this week that show Blackridge Strategy owner Amir Farahi purchased, created and ran two websites with domain names that shared the names of two women candidates who were maligned in information posted on them during last fall's municipal election. 

Former city councillor Virginia Ridley and current city Coun. Maureen Cassidy went to court to uncover who registered maureencassidy.ca and virginiaridley.ca in the midst of the fall municipal election campaign.

The two websites contained negative information about the two councillors, including accusing Ridley of child abuse for bringing her child to a budget meeting and calling out Cassidy for a lack of integrity. Because of the domain names, the websites looked like they were created by the candidates. 

Farahi denied his involvement when asked by CTV about it shortly after the October election.

He also hasn't responded to a request for comment from CBC News. 

And while Farahi won't talk, plenty of London city councillors were speaking about it yesterday. 

Here's what they said. 

Paul Van Meerbergen

One of the Farahi-created websites targeted Virginia Ridley, the incumbent councillor Van Meerbergen defeated in Ward 10. 

Van Meerbergen said he hired Blackridge to create his campaign website and Facebook presence. 

"I had absolutely nothing to do with fake websites," he told CBC News. "There's no place in London politics for these types of shenanigans."

Stephen Turner

Turner plans to ask city staff to petition the courts and look at whether creating the fake websites broke provincial election rules. 

"I think we've got enough evidence to be able to refer this matter to the courts for prosecution under the Elections Act," he said.  "This was an attack on our electoral system. We need to show strongly and clearly we won't stand for that.

"This was subversive, there are clear rules about how elections are to be conducted. One of them is that third-party campaigns can work for or against a candidate but it needs to be clear who organized it . It needs to be clear where the money is coming from."

Arielle Kayabaga 

Kayabaga is concerned that these are the kinds of dirty tricks that could keep women from entering politics. 

"That's the frustrating piece of this," she said. "We've been working to have more women participate in the political system and here you are attacking women, creating fake websites and getting into their personal lives. It's the exact same reason we're hearing why women aren't getting into politics, using those tools to intimidate and silence more women in London and I don't think that's OK in any shape or form."

Jesse Helmer

Helmer said the smear campaign was "totally unacceptable" but but feels any enforcement action should be left to the province. 

"As much as we might want to respond as councillors to violations, I think we have to be careful that we're not overstepping our role," he said. "This is provincial legislation, there's a process for enforcing that legislation."

"I just hope that whoever was involved, that we find out the full extent of it and that the people who were involved are held accountable. I think people think they can do this kind of stuff and get away with it. Hopefully, this will show them that that isn't the case." 

Anna Hopkins

Hopkins said last fall's campaign had a particularly nasty tone, especially for candidates who ran on pro bus rapid transit platforms. 

"I have huge concerns," said Hopkins. "The big issue for me now is how we move forward as a council, what are we going to do about this? We can't ignore it."

Shawn Lewis

The Ward 2 councillor posted a statement on his website, saying he used Blackridge for two items in 2018: A phone poll to gage voter sentiments and a "get out the vote" phone message on election day. 

"I chose Blackridge because they were local, not some firm out of Ottawa or Toronto," he said in a statement.

"I consider former Councillor Ridley a friend, and in fact I shared a campaign platform announcement with her, so recent news regarding a smear campaign allegedly coming from individuals with Blackridge bothers me considerably," he said. 

"Obviously, in light of recent developments, I will not be contracting future work with Blackridge Strategies."