Even More Local Coverage of Liberal Blogger's Arrest

Fraud charges force Grits to regroup

COREY LAROCQUE Local News - Thursday, April 19, 2007

Liberals in Niagara Falls should regroup now to find a new candidate for the next federal election, party officials say. Jim Curran, a 42-year-old realtor, dropped out of the race Tuesday hours after Niagara Regional Police charged him with fraud. "At this time we all just need to take a deep breath," said Judi Longfield, executive director of the Liberal Party of Canada's Ontario wing. It will be up to Liberals in the Niagara Falls riding association to figure out how they want to proceed...

...Curran was expected to get the party's nomination at a meeting originally scheduled for Wednesday night. The party cancelled that meeting Tuesday after police said they had arrested him earlier in the day. He was charged with two counts of fraud over $5,000 in what police described as a cheque-kiting scheme...

...A candidate search committee had also met last year with Coun. Carolynn Ioannoni and Joyce Morocco, the chairwoman of the GNGH Foundation, but they both ruled out running then. Both said Wednesday they did not plan to seek the nomination now in light of Curran's departure. The Liberal Party of Canada's website listed Niagara Falls as one of three ridings in Ontario where nominations were to be held Wednesday. But Niagara Falls had a line drawn through it with the word "cancelled" added to the website Wednesday morning. With the prospect of a federal election looming, Liberals have been acting quickly to line up their candidates. The party had 18 nomination meetings scheduled in Ontario this week alone. There are still numerous ridings that have not picked their candidates, Longfield said. "This process is still very much open," she said. A parachute candidate - someone from outside Niagara Falls - is always a possibility, but it's not something they've considered yet, Longfield said. Curran was known in party circles for writing a blog about national
affairs. "The What Do I Know Grit" blog was online Tuesday, but appears to have been taken down from the blogspot.com website....