Toronto lawyer Allan Kaufman wrote to Elections Canada in June, offering details of reimbursements of campaign donations allegedly paid by Deltro Electric Ltd., a small Mississauga contractor owned by Del Mastro’s cousin, David.
In exchange, Kaufman requested immunity for a group donors who had each given $1,000 to Del Mastro’s campaign, allegedly receiving $1,050 for each donation, plus a tax rebate, to allow David Del Mastro to secretly donate thousands of dollars to his cousin, exceeding the legal limit. It’s a charge he denies.
But the agency has told Kaufman it can only investigate allegations of electoral misconduct and that the power to offer the immunity he requested rests with federal prosecutors.
In a letter earlier this month, Elections Canada senior legal counsel Audrey Nowack also cautioned Kaufman about allowing potential witnesses to speak to the media.
She said it affects witness credibility and “may raise questions concerning their motives for providing information and, consequently, may affect the commissioner’s assessment of and weight given to the information or the offer to provide it.”
The letter also said the commissioner’s office was willing to hear from witnesses about the allegations but could not offer any immunity.
Kaufman said he understands investigators can’t directly offer immunity, but sees no reason why they can’t work with federal prosecutors so the witnesses can speak freely.
He spoke to Nowack on the phone on Monday and was surprised by her apparent lack of interest in following up the allegations with him.
“I see no indication they’re going to do anything,” he said. “They’re going to do nothing. No immunity. No bringing in the Crown. No interest in anything I have to say.”
Kaufman said he had been expecting some negotiation about arranging the immunity for the donors. But what he got instead was a terse and strange phone conversation.
“This woman would do nothing for me. She wouldn’t put a toe in the water. She wouldn’t even try to talk to me, to elicit more information.”
Three people with links to Deltro have told the Citizen and Postmedia News they were reimbursed by Deltro in the amount of $1,050 before giving $1,000 each to Del Mastro’s campaign in Peterborough, a three hours’s drive away. They were also allowed to claim the donation on tax returns — a benefit that would exceed $500, one of the donors said.
One former employee of the company has provided a sworn declaration describing how David Del Mastro asked employees to recruit friends or family members to participate. The Citizen has obtained copies of two cheques from Deltro and matching donations to the Del Mastro campaign that appear to back up the story.
David Del Mastro has emphatically denied he paid reimbursements and says he simply asked people he knew to donate to his cousin’s campaign voluntarily.
Kaufman asked for immunity because the potential witnesses may be in legal jeopardy, having possibly violated the Elections Act as well as the Income Tax Act for claiming the donations on their tax returns.
There is no indication Elections Canada would have known about the alleged reimbursements had it not been for a series of Citizen-Postmedia reports based on information provided by Del Mastro donors.
The agency is, however, investigating unrelated allegations that Dean Del Mastro and his official agent overspent on the 2008 campaign by paying an Ottawa company for voter contact calls and failing to declare the full cost in campaign filings.
Del Mastro, who serves a parliamentary secretary to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, says he did nothing wrong and expects to be exonerated of the allegations. His lawyer says he has agreed to give a statement to Elections Canada investigators but it is unclear if the interview has been scheduled yet.
Though Del Mastro has said he had no knowledge of any alleged reimbursements paid to donors through his cousin’s company, Kaufman says he called the MP’s office on Parliament Hill on June 5 — well before the first Citizen stories about the donations — to alert him.
Kaufman says he spoke to a legislative assistant who was “aghast” at the allegations and promised to someone would get back to him, but no one did, he said.
Two weeks later, Del Mastro claimed he knew nothing of the reimbursement allegations when he was asked about it by reporters on his way into a Conservative caucus meeting.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said, then added that he sees lots of “silly stories” every day.
Del Mastro has repeatedly complained about media coverage of irregularities in his election financing, suggesting Elections Canada is leaking information.
In Nowack’s letter to Kaufman, she writes that if Elections Canada does communicate with witnesses “the expectation would be that any such communication would be kept confidential and not disclosed to any other person or the media.”
Veteran Toronto elections lawyer Jack Siegel said Tuesday that Nowack appears to be insisting on public silence from potential witnesses.
“I certainly understand that Elections Canada is concerned about potential witnesses speaking to the media, but I am more than a little surprised they are effectively making an agreement to cease communicating with the media a condition,” he said.
Siegel, a Liberal, says the commissioner can negotiate compliance agreements with people who have violated the act, which allows the office to effectively offer immunity from prosecution. Siegel is surprised that Nowack didn’t mention that possibility in her letter, but doesn’t think the agency is under political pressure.
Elections Canada spokesman John Enright said Tuesday that the commissioner is not able to grant immunity.
“In his work, the commissioner takes all relevant factors into consideration in determining how to address violations of the act,” he said. “Possible outcomes can range from informal resolution to a formal compliance agreement or to a recommendation to the director of public prosecutions that charges be laid.”
Original Article
Source: ottawa citizen
Author: glen mcgregor and Stephen Maher
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