Darryl Sutherland

Darryl Sutherland is a political figure in Manitoba, Canada. In the Manitoba provincial election of 1995, he ran as an Independent Native Voice candidate in the riding of Interlake, and placed a distant fourth with only 289 votes. In 1998-99, however, his candidacy was the subject of a major scandal in Manitoba politics, which implicated some organizers of the Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba in a vote-splitting scheme.

Sutherland is a member of the Peguis First Nation, a prominent aboriginal group within Manitoba. Prior to the 1995 provincial election, he had been an unsuccessful candidate for the PFN's band council.

The circumstances surrounding Sutherland's entry into provincial politics in 1995 are still disputed, but a government inquiry later concluded that he was induced to run for the INV by Cubby Barrett and Allan Aitken, leading Progressive Conservative organizers in the Interlake region. Barrett paid Sutherland $5000 to participate in the campaign; Sutherland was jobless and homeless at the time, and had not previously been aware of the INV's existence.

The same government inquiry concluded that Sutherland's candidacy was part of a plan to divide the left-of-centre vote in some Manitoba ridings. The aboriginal population in Manitoba has usually supported candidates of the social-democratic New Democratic Party since the 1970s. For this reason, Tory organizers recognized that independent candidates supporting "aboriginal issues" had the potential to take votes away from the NDP, and allow the PCs to gain additional seats in the legislature. (There is nothing illegal or ethically dubious about independent candidates supporting particular issues. In this instance, however, some Tory organizers appear to have sponsored independent candidates for the specific purpose of vote-splitting.)

Barrett and Aitken's efforts were reinforced by other figures in the Progressive Conservative party, most notably Taras Sokolyk. Sokolyk, a close confidant of party leader Gary Filmon, facilitated campaign donations to candidates of the INV. He also paid Aitken in party funds during the campaign, reportedly for the latter's work in promoting the INV. (Aitken was certainly responsible for preparing campaign literature for Sutherland and other INV candidates, though he claimed in 2002 that Sokolyk's payment was for campaign work for the PC party).

Sutherland became disillusioned with his assigned role as a vote-splitter, and hired Kazmir Roschuk as his campaign organizer. During the late 1960s, Roschuk had been an NDP candidate and organizer; by 1995, however, he was widely regarded an eccentric and frequently displayed erratic behaviour. He convinced Sutherland that he should take Barrett's money, but make a serious attempt toward winning the seat himself. Roschuk appears to have believed that Sutherland had a genuine chance at winning the riding, with the combined support of aboriginals and opponents of gun control (which Sutherland also opposed).

During the campaign, Sutherland and Roschuk informed First Peoples Party leader Jerry Fontaine and former NDP MLA Bill Uruski about the vote-splitting efforts of some PC organizers (it should be noted that the FPP was a separate organization from the INV). Fontaine encouraged Sutherland to take his story to the press, but Sutherland declined.

Shortly before election day, Uruski went public with the reports he had heard. On April 22, 1995, the "Winnipeg Free Press" ran a story suggesting that Sutherland's candidacy may have been influenced by Tory interests, though it did not formally allege any wrongdoing. Sutherland and Roschuk initially denied these reports, claiming that their candidacy was serious.

Sutherland's 289 votes were not enough to make a difference in the Interlake riding's outcome. NDP candidate Clif Evans defeated his Tory opponent by over 1200 votes, and won every single native reservation in the riding. (In nearby Swan River, however, INV leader Nelson Contois nearly took enough votes away from the NDP candidate to allow a PC victory.)

Between 1995 and 1998, various rumours emerged about Tory involvement in Sutherland's campaign. After three years of avoiding media contact, Sutherland told his story to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in 1998. This brought the controversy back into the public eye, and set in motion a series of events which resulted in Gary Filmon calling a public inquiry.

The commission, led by judge Alfred Monnin, began its hearings in mid-1998. Sutherland's testimony was often evasive, and contradicted some of his previous statements. Sokolyk, however, confirmed that there was in fact a connection between the PC and INV campaigns. Monnin's official report was damaging to the Progressive Conservative Party, and may have contributed to the NDP's victory in the provincial election of 1999. No criminal charges were laid, as the two-year statute of limitations had elapsed.

The details of this scandal are outlined in Doug Smith's "As Many Liars: The Story of the 1995 Manitoba Vote-Splitting Scandal" (2003). Sutherland has not been in the public eye since his 1998 testimony. In 1999, CBC reporter Curt Petrovich won the Michener Award for his work in exposing the vote-splitting scheme.