Kamloops MP shares ‘misinformation’ and is called out by Liberal opponent

A Kamloops-area MP was called out by his Liberal opponent and former colleague for helping circulate misinformation this week.

As a former Crown prosecutor, MP Frank Caputo should “know better,” according to his Liberal opponent Iain Currie.

The comment from Currie was spurred when Caputo, and a few other Conservative candidates, shared a document on social media, which was allegedly doctored to sway incarcerated voters against the Conservatives. Caputo called the Correctional Service of Canada an “abject failure on all fronts” in a social media post.

“Sex offenders living next to kids in jail. Paul Bernardo in medium,” Caputo said in the post. “And now this.”

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Two other Conservatives claimed the Liberal Party was behind the document after it was “found behind bars” by a prison guard.

Who was behind the document isn’t clear, but the Correctional Service of Canada found no evidence the document circulated its prisons nor was it an authentic government document, according to a CBC report.

Reacting to Caputo’s post, Currie also took to social media saying it “clearly does not stand up” and a former Crown lawyer should know.

“Misinformation should not be tolerated and it should not be disseminated,” Currie said in the post. “Frank (Caputo) should take down his posts and focus on the priorities of the people of Kamloops-Thompson-Nicola.”

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Neither Currie nor Caputo were immediately available for comment.

The pair are facing off in the newly-drawn borders of the Kamloops-Thompson-Nicola riding as former colleagues, both having previously working together as Crown prosecutors.

More than a decade ago they worked together in the first-degree murder trial following the 2011 Armstrong killing of Taylor Van Diest.

Running against each other in a federal election for the second time, Currie has a stronger chance in the Conservative stronghold now carrying the Liberal Party banner. He ran for the Greens Party in the previous election.