Donations to Tory Senate leader queried
17 members of same family contributed
OTTAWA —Before he was appointed to the upper chamber, the Conservative party’s new leader in the Senate received political donations from 17 members of the same extended family as well as contributions from a key witness before the Charbonneau commission on Quebec political corruption.
Claude Carignan, the former mayor of the Montreal suburb of SaintEustache, was made government Senate leader this summer, replacing Sen. Marjory LeBreton as the Conservatives moved to stem the damage from the expense scandal.
“We only accept individual donations within the legal limit.”
CORY HAN, TORY PARTY SPOKESMAN
Prime Minister Stephen Harper had appointed Carignan to the Senate in 2009, after he ran for the Tories in the riding of Riviere-des-Mille-Iles in the 2008 general election, losing badly to the Bloc Québécois candidate.
Elections Canada records show that the Conservative electoral association in Carignan’s riding received 17 donations of $1,000 from members of the extended Mathers family, all on Sept. 19, 2008, after the election campaign had begun. These donations were just below the maximum allowable limit of $1,100.
The riding association then made a series of transfers totalling $71,000 to Carignan’s campaign, which did not record a single donation.
The donors appear to be relatives of Jean-Guy Mathers, a wealthy SaintEustache businessman who founded the Mathers Group, which owns restaurants, a sports club, drive-in movie theatre and a quarry in the Montreal suburb.
There is no indication that Elections Canada ever looked more closely at the donations from the Mathers family and no reason to believe they broke elections donation rules.
Carignan’s interim communications director, Richard Desmarais, said the senator would not comment on the donations.
“Senator Carignan doesn’t comment (on) this information,” wrote Desmarais in an email. “But I can tell you he was pleased to hear that all his funding was ‘legal.’”
In a followup email, Desmarais wrote: “In 2008, Senator Carignan, as candidate, was not personally implicated in the fundraising. His official agent and financial agent both were responsible for qualifying the (donors) and it was done.”
Conservative Party spokesman Cory Hann said in an email, “We only accept individual donations within the legal limit. These donations are disclosed to Elections Canada and details are publicly accessible.”
Also donating to Carignan’s riding association that year was Lino Zambito, the so-called “star witness” at the Charbonneau commission looking into corruption in Quebec politics.
Zambito also donated $1,000 to the Riviere-desMille-Iles Conservative riding association, as did his mother and father.
In an interview with CBC News last week, Zambito said Via Rail board member Leo Housakos — who has since been appointed a Conservative senator — approached him to solicit funds for Carignan during the 2008 election.
Housakos has dismissed the CBC report as a smear and denied any involvement in illegal fundraising.
Elections Canada records shows Housakos also gave a $1,000 donation to Carignan’s Riviere-des-Mille-Iles riding association, along with a Peter Housakos — the same name as Housakos’ son — and an Anastasia Housakos. All their donations were recorded on Sept. 6, the day before the writ dropped.
Asked about the Zambito donation, Desmarais noted that Zambito had participated in Quebec political fundraising for many years. As for revelations before the Charbonneau commission, “I can just tell you that the reputation and actions of Mr. Zambito and some others named there were not known” in 2008, Desmarais said.
The Charbonneau commission has heard evidence about the use of “pret-noms” or “borrowed-name” schemes in Quebec politics, in which political donations are made under the name of friends or family members to evade the cap on contributions.