A lawyer representing some of the donors wrote to the elections watchdog to say they will provide details of a scheme that allegedly used payments from a Mississauga electrical company owned by Del Mastro’s cousin to reimburse donors.
The lawyer specified these donors will co-operate if they are assured they would not face prosecution for accepting reimbursement and claiming the donations as deductions on their tax returns.
It is illegal to conceal the source of political contributions under the Elections Act.
David Del Mastro, owner of Deltro Electric Ltd., has denied offering any reimbursements and says he only asked employees and friends to give voluntarily.
Citing its standard policy of not commenting on investigations or complaints, Elections Canada would not say whether it would accept the offer or even confirm it had been received. The agency will not say if it is looking into these allegations.
The lawyer asked to remain anonymous, for now, to protect the identity of the donors.
Two of the donors to Del Mastro’s campaign this week provided the Citizen with copies of $1,050 cheques from Deltro, dated two days before they each made $1,000 contributions to the Conservative riding association in Peterborough.
One of these donors, a former Deltro employee, has signed a sworn statement describing how Deltro paid back money to employees, their friends or family members who gave to the campaign — allegations David Del Mastro says are untrue and likely originate with a disgruntled former staff member.
The former employee’s statement identified eight people who received reimbursements for giving $1,000 to the campaign or riding association. The statement listed the names of 11 other people who donated to Del Mastro’s campaign as having ties to Deltro. Four of these people contacted by the Citizen denied receiving compensation for their donations.
Dean Del Mastro, the prime minister’s parliament secretary, would not say whether he knew about any alleged reimbursements.
He did not return a call seeking comment, but when pressed on this point over email, would say only that all his campaign paperwork was handled properly.
“All donations to my campaigns have been received in the proper form, properly recorded and reported and receipts issued as per Elections Canada guidelines,” he wrote.
He did not respond to another email Thursday asking for more information.
Del Mastro is already under Elections Canada investigation for allegedly exceeding the spending limit during the same campaign by paying $21,000 to an Ottawa company for voter identification and get-out-the-vote calls.
Despite new revelations about the cheques, the Conservative government appears ready to ride out the furore over the prime minister’s parliamentary secretary.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper stood in the House to support Del Mastro last week, and his office, asked for comments on the cheques, simply pointed to those comments. But the Conservative Party would not respond to repeated requests for comment about alleged reimbursements this week. Last week, party spokesman Fred DeLorey said, “We don’t comment on hearsay and something we know just isn’t true.”
Reached on his cellphone Thursday, David Del Mastro hung up when asked for comment.
Original Article
Source: ottawa citizen
Author: GLEN MCGREGOR
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