Lawsuit against Bratina may violate criminal code
June 23, 2006

Councillor Bob Bratina.

The lawsuit launched this week by LIUNA head Joe Mancinelli against downtown councillor Bob Bratina may violate the criminal code of Canada. That possibility was raised by ward one councillor Brian McHattie at the June 12 council debate on the Lister Block.

Three days earlier, Mancinelli had held a press conference to demand that Bratina resign from council - giving him two weeks to do so or face the LIUNA lawsuit. McHattie rose at the beginning of the seven hour debate on the Lister Block and read out part of section 123 of the criminal code under the subtitle of municipal corruption.

McHattie stated: "It says everyone who by threats, influences or attempts to influence a municipal official to number one, abstain from voting at a meeting of a municipal council or committee thereof, or secondly to aid in procuring or preventing the adoption of a measure, motion or a resolution, is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years."

He was interrupted by Mayor Di Ianni who demanded to know if he was making an accusation. "Are you accusing, councillor, are you accusing someone of having violated the Criminal Code?" demanded the mayor.

McHattie ignored the question and proceeded to ask the city solicitor, Peter Barkwell, "what protection do councillors have in the face of this kind of threatening behaviour?"

McHattie suggested that the lawsuit threat might place "a black cloud" over councillors decision-making on the Lister. Before his question was answered, mountain councillor Terry Whitehead asked "if this is another attempt to dwarf this discussion and debate" on LIUNA's requested demolition permit for the Lister Block.

He also didn't get an answer and was blocked from pursuing the point by Mayor Di Ianni who called for "a respectful debate" and urged councillors to focus solely on the demolition application.

"If there are some concerns and allegations of wrongdoing and criminal wrongdoing, which is very serious, then this is not the forum, I don't think, that is going to adjudicate those issues," said the mayor.

McHattie eventually did get some response, but from city manager Glen Peace, rather than city solicitor Peter Barkwell. Peace said he had discussed the issue with Barkwell (who was sitting beside him) and declared:

"[I]t's certainly the opinion of our city solicitor that there is no criminal offence. Having said that, and Mr Barkwell asked me to make this very clear, that if any person believes that there has been a breech or a criminal offence, his advice is that it should be reported to the police immediately."

On the issue of the effect of the threatened lawsuit on the councillors decision-making, Peace said Barkwell didn't see that as an immediate problem.

"I asked Mr Barkwell specifically to respond to me on the last issue, which is how it would affect our proceedings and Mr Barkwell's opinion was given that the time frame was one to two weeks out and it would be beyond today's session and certainly council and it wouldn't affect the vote."

Peace did not respond to McHattie's concerns about protection of councillors from this type of pressure and Barkwell did not make any direct comments to the councillors. It is not known if anyone has approached the police about the incident.

According to earlier media reports, the mayor had "declined to comment" on Mancinelli's lawsuit threat, indicating instead that he thinks "it's a personal decision for Bratina".

Mancinelli was co-chair of Di Ianni's 2003 election campaign and helped organize a major post-election fundraiser at LIUNA Station that raised about $81,000.

The criminal code is available on the federal government's website at http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/C-46/41954.html#rid-41990.