The decision comes in a letter from Nicholson to federal NDP ethics critic Charlie Angus. Angus wrote to Nicholson in July, asking him to call in the RCMP and federal prosecutors to investigate unproven allegations that Del Mastro, the parliamentary secretary to the prime minister, had benefited from a scheme through which employees of his cousin were allegedly paid to make donations to his campaign.
In his letter to Nicholson, Angus suggested that Del Mastro might have violated the Criminal Code, the elections act and the income tax act, and asked him to refer the matter “to maintain the integrity of the democratic process.”
Nicholson replied in a letter last week that he would not do so.
“The Attorney General does not refer matters to the Director of Public Prosecutions for investigation, as this would not be consistent with the role of the DPP,” Nicholson wrote, adding the prosecution service is not an investigative body.
Agency spokesman Dan Brien confirmed that.
“We don’t conduct or direct investigations,” said Brien. “We prosecute charges once laid by an investigative agency or law enforcement and we provide advice to those agencies when asked.”
Angus, in a letter to be released Thursday, says that the justice minister should intervene because potential witnesses who have approached Elections Canada were told the agency did not have the power to grant immunity to them in exchange for evidence.
“As you are well aware, it is federal prosecutors who have jurisdiction for granting immunity,” Angus writes. “The Public Prosecution Service of Canada was set up for exactly this purpose.”
Employees of Deltro Electric, a Mississauga contractor owned by Del Mastro’s cousin, David Del Mastro, have told The Ottawa Citizen and Postmedia News that they were reimbursed $50 by the company for donating $1,000 each, in addition to a tax rebate of about $500, and they provided copies of cheques from the company in the amount of $1,050.
Under the Elections Act, it is a serious offence to conceal the real source of donations to an election campaign.
David Del Mastro has denied issuing any reimbursements to his cousin’s campaign contributors and says he only asked people to give voluntarily, and Dean Del Mastro has repeatedly asserted that everything was proper in his campaign contributions.
After telling Allan Kaufman, the lawyer for one of the donors, that Elections Canada does not have the power to offer immunity from prosecution, last week investigator Ronald Lamothe started contacting donors, but Kaufman says they won’t talk if it means risking prosecution.
“My people are not talking to them,” Kaufman said last week. “They’re like a clam.”
In Angus’s letter, he calls on Nicholson to ask prosecutors to get involved.
“We believe the Director of Public Prosecutions is in a position to aid Elections Canada in its investigation and again ask you to demonstrate your commitment to helping authorities get to the bottom of this,” he writes.
Nicholson’s letter does not address the question of referring allegations to the RCMP, except to suggest that if Angus has further information, he “may contact the appropriate investigative agency directly.”
Julie Di Mambro, press secretary to Nicholson, said Wednesday that anyone can do the same.
“Any Canadian, that’s including Mr. Angus, can go and contact the investigative agency and they can do so directly.”
Angus said Wednesday that he is surprised Nicholson won’t act.
“If you think you’ve got any evidence take it to the police?” he said. “We’re talking about allegations of a kickback scheme tied to the parliamentary secretary to the prime minister. You’d think the attorney general would want to be seen taking this issue very seriously. The obvious role is the director of public prosecutions.”
He compared the government’s actions on Del Mastro to the case of former MP Helena Guergis. In 2010, the prime minister’s office referred allegations against her to the RCMP and ejected her from caucus. The investigation was eventually closed without charges and Guergis is suing the prime minister and the party for defamation.
“In that case, they stated right up front that they had evidence and an investigation had to be undertaken,” said Angus. “We never really saw that evidence, but in this case we’re seeing some very disturbing allegations emerge, and so why is the attorney general now shrugging his shoulders?”
Dean Del Mastro is also under investigation by Elections Canada for allegedly exceeding the election expenses limit in his riding, by paying $21,000 for voter-identification work with a personal cheque.
He says the payment was for work unrelated to the election and has complained that he is being smeared in the media.
Original Article
Source: canada.com
Author: Stephen Maher, Glen McGregor
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