Charges against mayor don't reflect all illegal donations
July 11, 2006

Mayor DiIanni.

The 41 election act charges laid against Mayor Di Ianni yesterday by Kingston lawyer Timothy J Wilkins are linked to many of the acknowledged over-contributions to his 2003 election campaign, but not to all of them. The mayor has issued nearly 60 refund cheques to corporate and individual donors who gave his campaign more than the legal limit of $750.

Among the donations not mentioned in the list of charges are those from four companies charged a year ago with making illegal donations - Losani Homes (1998) Ltd; Tender Choice Foods Inc; St Lawrence Cement Inc. and TCG Asphalt and Construction.

Court action continues against the first two, while the latter two have acknowledged that their donations were improper and have made court-ordered charitable donations. St Lawrence Cement owns TCG Asphalt, while a third donor, Dufferin Construction, is a business name for St Lawrence. Together they gave $2250 to Di Ianni.

The charges filed yesterday on behalf of city council by Wilkins also don't mention about a dozen refunds issued by Di Ianni just before filing his final financial statement on March 1, 2005. These over-donations became apparent when the Di Ianni campaign team amended donor lists from a sworn financial statement submitted two years earlier - changing the donor names for about three dozen cheques from individuals to corporations.

That pushed a number of the corporate donors over the legal maximum of $750. In converting these to corporate donations in the final financial statement, the mayor's campaign also recorded a different address for nine of the cheques.

Several of the charges laid yesterday by Wilkins allege that Di Ianni "failed to correctly reflect the name of a contributor by recording said contributor." Most of the others are for "failing to ensure that an excess contribution of money . was returned . as soon as possible after the candidate became aware of the contravention".

The document filed in court does not provide any explanation as to why the mayor's handling of some illegal donations has generated charges while others have not. However, the March 6 council resolution instructing Wilkins says "that the charges to be laid shall be those for which reasonable and probable grounds exist for believing that an offence has been committed."

At the time, Wilkins advised that some apparent offences by the Mayor's campaign might be difficult to prove beyond a reasonable doubt. In this light he advised against charging Di Ianni with accepting donations from ineligible donors because the compliance auditor did not determine who specifically received the monies given to his campaign.

At the same time, Wilkins noted that "it does not represent a proper discharge of a candidate's duty under the Act to first wait until a complaint is made about having received excess contributions before determining whether they exist and then refunding them."

When the allegations of illegal donations were first raised by Dundas businesswoman Joanna Chapman, the mayor at first dismissed the charges, saying "I'm confident everything was done appropriately." Councillors initially agreed and rejected Chapman's request for a compliance audit. Ancaster councillor Murray Ferguson, who chaired that meeting, described the charges as "vexatious and frivolous" and Di Ianni said Chapman's claims were politically motivated and an attempt to smear him because of his support for the Red Hill Creek Expressway.

However, Di Ianni hired an accounting firm to review his donations, and it found numerous over-contributions. During a long court battle over whether a compliance audit should take place, the mayor's lawyers argued that the onus is on the donors to make sure they don't contravene the act, and that Di Ianni had met his obligations by returning excess donations.

The audit was ordered by the court in May of last year. A first report was submitted in October and a supplementary one in February. Councillors asked for an independent legal opinion by a non-staff lawyer, and then rejected the first one chosen by staff because of his apparent ties to the city and the mayor. Wilkins, the second choice, swayed an initially reluctant council to support charges against the mayor and two defeated candidates.

The mayor is to appear in court in Hamilton on August 15 to respond to the charges. A copy of the charges submitted to the court yesterday has been posted on the Indymedia website at http://hamilton.indymedia.org/media/all/display/540/index.php.

More information about Wilkins and his report to and instructions from city council can be found at http://www.hamiltoncatch.org/articles/art_0603/art_060307charges.htm.