Calgary Herald

MP suffers a huge fall from grace as he goes to jail

Del Mastro sent to jail for election overspendi­ng

- GLEN MCGREGOR

Former Conservati­ve MP Dean Del Mastro was taken by police van Thursday from the courthouse in his hometown of Peterborou­gh, Ont., to a maximum- security jail, ferrying him into history as the first former member of Parliament imprisoned for violating Canada’s election law.

Del Mastro, 44, was sentenced Thursday to one month in jail for overspendi­ng on his 2008 election campaign, breaking his own spending limit, then filing a false campaign report.

Ontario Court of Justice Judge Lisa Cameron said Del Mastro bears a high “moral culpabilit­y” for the spending and his “significan­t attempts” to hide it.

“He was prepared to be deceitful about it,” she said, calling the offences “an affront to the principles of our democratic system ( that) must be regarded as quite serious.”

Del Mastro began serving his sentence immediatel­y, but could be released on bail, pending an appeal of the guilty findings, at a hearing Friday morning.

The jail sentence marks a stunning fall for the former parliament­ary secretary to Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

At the height of his career, he sat on the House of Commons ethics committee and regularly defended the Conservati­ve Party in question period on allegation­s about the illegal robocalls sent to voters in the 2011 election.

But on Thursday, a flushed and shaken Del Mastro, his eyes puffy, was led from the courtroom by police while his wife, Kelly, and other family looked on.

Cameron additional­ly imposed a second one- month jail sentence to be served concurrent­ly with the other, and a four- month conditiona­l sentence of house arrest, followed by 18 months of probation.

Del Mastro must also repay $ 10,000 the judge said he owed the Peterborou­gh Conservati­ve riding associatio­n.

In October, Cameron found Del Mastro hid the costs of voter contact and get- out- the- vote calls made for his campaign in the riding of Peterborou­gh by paying the supplier, the now- defunct Holinshed Research, with a personal cheque for $ 21,000.

Had the amount been properly included in his election spending report, his campaign would have exceeded its legal spending limit.

He was also found guilty of

It’s a shock to anybody who has gone through their life without a single criminal blemish.

breaking the personal campaign cap of $ 2,000 and of filing a false return with Elections Canada to conceal the overspendi­ng.

Del Mastro’s official campaign agent, Richard McCarthy, 68, was given a two- month conditiona­l sentence of house arrest and 12 months of probation for his role in the offences. He may not serve as an official agent for five years.

Cameron said Thursday that it wasn’t possible to know if the spending affected the outcome in the 2008 election, which Del Mastro won easily, but that this wasn’t material to the sentence.

“Cheating is cheating,” she said. “They spent too much money and knew it.”

Del Mastro’s lawyer, Leo Adler, said his client was disappoint­ed by the sentence.

“I think it’s a shock to anybody who has gone through their life without a single criminal blemish to all of a sudden be told that you have to go to a jail,” he said.

“A month is a substantia­l period of time for someone who has never been there.”

Adler’s appeal cites what he contends are numerous errors in the way Cameron considered evidence at trial.

Crown prosecutor Tom Lemon had suggested a sentence of nine to 12 months in jail, but said he was satisfied that Del Mastro will serve time behind bars.

 ?? SKARSTEDT/ PETERBOROU­GH EXAMINER
CLIFFORD ?? Former MP Dean Del Mastro was sentenced to a month in jail on four Elections Canada charges.
SKARSTEDT/ PETERBOROU­GH EXAMINER CLIFFORD Former MP Dean Del Mastro was sentenced to a month in jail on four Elections Canada charges.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from Canada