A Green Party candidate in the Courtenay-Comox riding during the 2024 election has been served a $150 penalty for sponsoring election advertising without an authorization statement.
According to Elections BC, it received complaints on Oct. 11, 2024, regarding paid flyers that Arzeena Hamir had handed. The flyers in question were two-sided, reading “This Election the Green Vote is the Strategic Vote, Vote Arzeena Hamir,” and did not contain an authorization statement.
Hamir responded to Elections BC, stating that the authorization statement was inadvertently deleted from the flyers by volunteers prior to printing and that as soon as the missing authorization statement was brought to their attention, they retrieved the remaining flyers and added stickers with the authorization statement.
Approximately 200 flyers were delivered without the authorization statement.
On July 30, 2025, the Investigator emailed Hamir, asking for clarification about who paid for the advertising and the method of payment, and Hamir replied confirming that the invoice was paid for by the campaign.
On the same day, Hamir’s financial agent, Jane Sterk provided a bank statement confirming payment was made on Oct. 23, 2024.
Under Section 231 of the Election Act, it states that an individual or organization must not sponsor, or publish, broadcast or transmit to the public, any election advertising unless the advertising indicates that it was authorized by the identified financial agent or sponsor.
