Summary of the Notice of Violation

Name of individual, corporation or entity	Roberto Carbone
Date of violation	October 2020 by-election
Section of the Act	353(1)
Baseline amount	$500
Aggravating factor	N/A
Mitigating factor	N/A
AMP total amount	$500
Issued by	Deputy Commissioner

Key facts of violation

During the October 2020 by-election in the electoral district of York-Centre, Roberto Carbone, the leader of the Republican Party of Canada (the Party), paid for advertising through several promoted posts on the Party’s Facebook page. Copies of these ads are stored in the Facebook ads library. The promoted ads were election advertising as defined at subsection 2(1) and 2(7) of the Canada Elections Act (Act), as they opposed a registered political party and its leader by naming them.

There are reasonable grounds to believe that Roberto Carbone incurred costs of $500 or more for the promoted ads as established by the Facebook ads library, therefore exceeding the $500 threshold after which registration is mandatory. Subsection 353(1) of the Act states that a third party must register immediately after having incurred $500 in regulated election period expenses. Elections Canada records confirm that, as of July 13, 2022, Roberto Carbone had not registered as a third party for the purposes of the October 2020 by-election.

There are therefore reasonable grounds to believe that Roberto Carbone is in violation of the requirement to register as a third party, as required by subsection 353(1) of the Act.