No proof election calls were actually made: Del Mastro's lawyer

OSHAWA, Ont. — Dean Del Mastro should not have been convicted of overspending on his 2008 election campaign because there’s no proof the hundreds of phone calls to voters he paid for were ever made, the former Conservative MP’s lawyer argued in court Tuesday.

Lawyer Leo Adler said the judge in Del Mastro’s 2014 trial erred by failing to consider the commercial value of the voter-ID and get-out-the-vote calls that were actually made when determining whether his campaign breached the legal spending limit.

Dean Del Mastro legal fees subsidized by taxpayers

Canadians subsidized the legal fees of Dean Del Mastro, the former parliamentary secretary to the prime minister, through a fundraiser organized by his riding association that allowed it to provide tax receipts to contributors.

Political contributions are eligible for a tax credit of up to $650, depending on the amount contributed. A spokeswoman for the commissioner of Canada elections says there are no guidelines for how a riding association spends its money outside of an election period. That means the Peterborough Conservatives broke no rules.

Fundraiser paid ex-MP's legal tab

OTTAWA -- Winnipeg NDP MP Pat Martin wants the Conservatives to demand former MP Dean Del Mastro repay money raised by his riding association to pay for his legal bills.

Del Mastro, the former Conservative MP for Peterborough, was convicted last month of charges under the Elections Act, including spending more than he was allowed during the 2008 election and falsifying a document to cover it up. He resigned his seat Nov. 5.

Last year, Del Mastro's riding association raised nearly $40,000 for his legal-defence fund at a $600-a-plate dinner featuring former prime minister Brian Mulroney. More than two-thirds of the ticket price was eligible for a tax credit for federal political donations, netting each ticket buyer as much as $357.50 back on their taxes.

Dean Del Mastro's Sentencing Postponed To January, But Big Questions Remain

LINDSAY, Ont. - A sentencing hearing for former Conservative MP Dean Del Mastro has been postponed until Jan. 27, but questions remain about the next steps in the disgraced politician's legal battles.

Del Mastro — once parliamentary secretary to Prime Minister Stephen Harper — resigned from his House of Commons seat two weeks ago after he was convicted of violating the Canada Elections Act during the 2008 election.

Dean Del Mastro legal fees subsidized by taxpayers

Canadians subsidized the legal fees of Dean Del Mastro, the former parliamentary secretary to the prime minister, through a fundraiser organized by his riding association that allowed it to provide tax receipts to contributors.

Political contributions are eligible for a tax credit of up to $650, depending on the amount contributed. A spokeswoman for the commissioner of Canada elections says there are no guidelines for how a riding association spends its money outside of an election period. That means the Peterborough Conservatives broke no rules.

Defiant Del Mastro: This isn’t over yet

LINDSAY, Ont. - The fight of his political life is far from over, Dean Del Mastro declared Friday after an Ontario judge who found his credibility lacking convicted the former Conservative MP of spending too much on his 2008 election campaign.

After the ruling, a calm but defiant Del Mastro insisted that he would continue to sit in the House of Commons — even though anyone convicted of breaking the Canada Elections Act is barred from doing so for at least five years.

Dean’s done — and Harper’s eye for talent is as keen as ever

If it wasn’t so serious, it would be funnier than Rick Mercer on St. Paddy’s Day with a straw in his rum and Coke.

On Friday, MP Dean Del Mastro — late of the Conservative caucus, lately an independent — was found guilty on all counts by Justice Lisa Cameron in his election expenses trial. It turns out he did “overspend” (read “cheat”) in the 2008 federal election.

How did he do it? By making a personal contribution of $21,000 to his own campaign … and, uh, failing to report it. By knowingly submitting a falsified document to Elections Canada. And in my books, he kept up the charade that he had done nothing wrong by lying his brains out for years.

Case against Del Mastro 'overwhelming,' Crown argues

PETERBOROUGH, Ont. — All the evidence presented in MP Dean Del Mastro’s election fraud trial backs up the story told by key witness Frank Hall, while Del Mastro’s story doesn’t match the facts, a prosecutor told a judge in Peterborough on Thursday.

“The evidence of guilt in this case is overwhelming,” Tom Lemon told Judge Lisa Cameron as the Crown presented its final arguments.

Invoices were backdated for 2008 election campaign at MP Dean Del Mastro’s request, trial told

PETERBOROUGH, Ont. — Computer records introduced in court Friday show that key financial documents in the trail of Dean Del Mastro were created during the 2008 election campaign but dated months earlier, backing up the testimony of the key witness and posing a challenge for the MP’s defence.

Crown prosecutor Brendan Gluckman spent Friday slowly going through metadata with RCMP Cpl. David Connors, a computer forensic examiner, laboriously establishing the dates and times of the electronic documents drawn from the laptop of Frank Hall.

Stephen Harper's very bad day: Charges against Dean Del Mastro and a new PBO report

Poor Stephen Harper.

It's just days since he pulled Peterborough MP Dean Del Mastro out of the dog house and appointed him Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Northern Economic Development and the development agencies for Southern and Northern Ontario.

Now the Commissioner of Canada Elections, Mr. Yves Côté, has laid four charges under the Canada Elections Act against Del Mastro.

Parliamentary secretaries are supposed to be understudies to cabinet ministers.

Dean Del Mastro quits Tory caucus after Election Act charges

Conservative MP Dean Del Mastro has quit the party's caucus after he and a campaign staffer were charged with intentionally breaking campaign rules during the 2008 federal election, he said in a statement Thursday.

Elections Canada alleges Del Mastro, who represents the Ontario riding of Peterborough in the House of Commons, intentionally overspent his 2008 campaign limit and tried to cover it up by reporting a $21,000 expense as $1,575.

Oops. MP tells City to apply for program that no longer exists

PETERBOROUGH -- Among a couple suggestions to better promote Peterborough, MP Dean Del Mastro recently encouraged the City to apply to Heritage Canada’s Cultural Capitals of Canada program.

 The only problem is, the program no longer exists.

During a presentation to City councillors on Tuesday (Aug. 6), the local MP highlighted the federal program, which recognized small, medium and large Canadian cities each year as cultural capitals in the nation for one year. The city has a good shot at the title, and the federal money that comes along with it, he told councillors, unaware the program ended last year.

Director of Public Prosecutions weighing charges against Del Mastro over campaign expenses

OTTAWA — Federal prosecutors are considering laying charges over expenses claimed by Conservative MP Dean Del Mastro’s campaign during the 2008 election.

After a lengthy investigation, the Commissioner of Canada Elections Yves Côté referred the file to the office of Director of Public Prosecutions Brian Saunders earlier this summer.

Côté would refer the case to Saunders only if he believed an offence under the Elections Act had occurred.

MP Dean Del Mastro donor records seized in election probe

Records obtained from Elections Canada suggest the agency has deepened its investigation into donations to Conservative MP Dean Del Mastro.

Lists of contributors to Del Mastro's 2008 federal campaign have been seized by the commissioner of Canada Elections, the records show. If the commissioner thinks criminal charges are warranted, he can refer the case to the director of public prosecutions, who decides whether to press charges.

MP Dean Del Mastro interfering in elections investigation, witness says

OTTAWA – A witness in an Elections Canada investigation has written to Prime Minister Stephen Harper and House of Commons Speaker Andrew Scheer complaining that Conservative MP Dean Del Mastro’s attacks on him appear to be designed to interfere with the investigation.

Last Thursday, Del Mastro, the parliamentary secretary to the prime minister, rose in the House on what’s called a “question of privilege” to complain that an investigation into his 2008 campaign financing was violating his rights as an MP.

Del Mastro claims election law allegations are a breach of his privilege as MP

OTTAWA — Conservative MP Dean Del Mastro claims Elections Canada leaked court documents about his alleged campaign finance violations, breaching his privileges as an MP and leaving him feeling “violated.”

A day after the Peterborough, Ont., MP launched a media offensive calling on Elections Canada to either charge him over his 2008 campaign expenses or clear his name, Del Mastro took the highly unusual step of asking the speaker of the House of Commons to find a breach of privilege — the fundamental right of MPs to represent their constituents.

Dean Del Mastro missed 26 ethics committee meetings

OTTAWA — Opposition MPs are calling on the prime minister to dump his parliamentary secretary, Dean Del Mastro, after he missed more than two dozen consecutive meetings of the House of Commons ethics committee.

Although he has been listed as a member of the Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics Committee since shortly after the 2011 election, the Ontario MP hasn’t attended a single meeting in more than nine months.

Harper PR 101: When in doubt, shoot the messenger

The Harper bully brigade is at it again and this time the stakes have been raised: a direct attack on the free press.

The prime minister’s office released a statement singling out Postmedia’s Stephen Maher for the high crime of pursuing a news story. This was done on behalf of the PM’s parliamentary secretary, Dean Del Mastro.

RCMP helps investigate allegations against Tory MP’s election campaign

OTTAWA — RCMP officers have been brought in to help Elections Canada with two separate investigations into alleged financing violations in the 2008 campaign of Dean Del Mastro, parliamentary secretary to the prime minister.

Mounties from the Integrated Technical Crime Unit were brought in to analyze computer evidence in Elections Canada’s investigation of allegations of campaign spending by Del Mastro’s 2008 re-election campaign in his Peterborough riding.

Anonymous comments? Dean Del Mastro's right: There oughtta be a law!

It's hard not to feel a pang of sympathy for Dean Del Mastro, the Conservative MP for the Ontario riding of Peterborough, who informed us the other day that there oughtta be a law about anonymous comments on the Internet.

Who among us hasn't felt the sting of the Anonymous Brigade on Twitter, Facebook and in the comments sections of myriad blogs and online newspapers? Just try to "censor" some Sun News Network bloviator's on-air ejaculations and watch what happens to your blog's comments section!

"One of the best ways to end on-line and electronic bullying, libel and slander would be to force people posting hurtful comments to properly identify themselves," Del Mastro (or some anonymous political sluggo toiling away in his constituency office) wrote last week on his Facebook account.