A Toronto woman has launched a lawsuit in an attempt to force the auditor general to release a report before the federal election into spending on projects connected to last year's G8 summit.
Kathleen Trotter, a member of the global activist group Avaaz, launched the suit in Federal Court on Tuesday saying she wanted to see the final version of Sheila Fraser's report on the G8 infrastructure fund.
The suit comes on the heels of a leaked draft of the report which alleged that $50 million worth of taxpayer money was illegally spent in the riding of Conservative MP and Industry Minister Tony Clement.
Meanwhile Avaaz says 82,000 people have signed a petition to have the report released before the May 2nd election.
Avaaz adds on its website that parliamentary experts say there is no law baring the Auditor General from immediately releasing this report to the public.
However Fraser has not released the report, saying the Auditor General Act bars her from doing so.
Trotter's lawyer Frank Addario says he hopes the court will hear the case this week.
Two drafts of the auditor general's report into G8 spending were originally leaked before the leaders' debate in early April.
One of the drafts suggested the Conservatives misinformed Parliament about their intentions and may have broken the law.
Another draft obtained by CTV News, said to be a more recent revision, makes no mention of either illegality or misinformation on the part of the government, but it says many of the projects funded in Clement's Muskoka riding had nothing to do with the G8 meetings that were held there.
Trotter, a fitness trainer who says she hasn't decided how she'll vote, wants to see the report before making her decision.
"I am a little nervous," she said during Tuesday morning's press conference. "I have never done this before. I guess why I have come this far is because when I am 85-years-old I want to look back at my life and say I did something."
Meanwhile Addario said the report should be released before the election, in part because more than 80,000 people are demanding to see it.
He said: "Did the party in power, now seeking more power, abuse that power in financial spending or not? Is the leaked report true?"
In a statement at the time of the leaks Fraser said: "The Office of the Auditor General of Canada remains the custodian of its reports until they are presented to the Speaker of the House of Commons for tabling."
In her statement, Fraser said that during her department's audit process, early drafts of her reports are shared with various government departments in order to check facts, obtain more information or allow departments to prepare responses to her findings.
"Sometimes during the process of fact validation, additional information is brought to our attention," Fraser said.
"Only the final report that is tabled in Parliament represents our audit findings and conclusions."
With files from The Canadian Press
