Mysterious Kelowna elector organization under investigation by Elections BC

A mysterious organization that emerged in the last municipal election is being investigated by Elections B.C.

Spirit Alliance appeared in September 2022 with a website and social media channels to support two candidates for Kelowna council, Chris Williams and Sacheen Collecutt.

The organizations website remains online but social media channels have either folded or are “unmonitored and inactive” following the election.

Spirit Alliance is among a dozen elector organizations being investigated by the agency that runs elections in the province.

READ MORE: Kelowna's new political slate is right-wing — but how right wing?

Elections B.C. wouldn’t give specific details about the investigation, but said it could be for accepting prohibited contributions, contraventions of election legislation or sponsoring election advertising without an authorization statement. Elections B.C. says it will report on the outcomes of its investigation whether it finds contraventions or not.

It says in a release that Spirit Alliance has submitted its financial information and has cooperated with the audit but the investigation is based on the information submitted.

Spirit Alliance has no phone numbers and no one behind the organization has identified themselves. It contains no specifics about why it exists or what its intentions were. Social media channels contains right-wing and anti-vaccination posts.

Someone who refused to be identified answered a query through the website saying the irregularity discovered was a donation made through a corporation instead of as an individual. The statement said the donation was refunded and they expected the matter to be cleared once Elections B.C. catches up with the paperwork.

Selected candidates were cagey about the organization when asked by iNFOnews.ca and refused to explain how they were involved. Neither of their candidates were elected.

— This story was updated at 3:14 p.m. April 11, 2024 to include an email response from Spirit Alliance.

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