Blair took cash from men charged in probe
Former police chief returned $4,000 in campaign funding after learning of investigation
Former Toronto police chief and Liberal MP Bill Blair accepted almost $4,000 in campaign donations from two lawyers last year — three months after they were publicly named as targets of an RCMP probe into police union fraud.
The lawyers are two of five people charged last week as part of an alleged scheme involving top leaders at the Ontario Provincial Police union.
Blair, who was chief of the Toronto Police Service from 2005 to 2015, was elected last October as a Liberal MP for Scarborough Southwest.
Questions to Blair’s office were referred to David Paradis, the Liberal riding association president for Scarborough Southwest. Paradis confirmed in an email that there was a fundraiser for Blair’s campaign in June 2015 in a private box at the Rogers Centre.
Blair had accepted an offer from lawyer Francis Chantiam to host the event. Andrew McKay, a cop-turnedlawyer who used to work for Toronto police, purchased a ticket to attend.
“Mr. Blair was unaware at the time of the fundraiser that there was an investigation into Mr. Chantiam or Mr. McKay. Upon learning of the news, Mr. Blair asked the riding association to return the donations,” Paradis said in an emailed statement.
None of the allegations against any of the men has been tested in court.
Paradis said Chantiam and his wife hosted the fundraiser, which served as a $2,411.16 in-kind donation; Chantiam also donated $1,000 to the campaign. McKay chipped in $500. Both men had been named three months earlier in a front-page Star story detailing an RCMP investigation into allegations of fraud at the OPP union. The story, in which police described Chantiam and McKay as accomplices, was also featured in several other media outlets.
Blair directed the riding association to refund the donations on Friday — the day after charges were announced, Paradis said.
He explained that Blair, now parliamentary secretary to the minister of justice, asked the association to give $1,500 to the Receiver General, which handles ineligible donations that can’t be returned. Blair has also directed the association to donate $2,411.16 to Variety Village, a charity in Scarborough, to cover the in-kind donation, Paradis said.
After a 19-month investigation, the Mounties charged Chantiam, McKay and three long-time OPP union executives: Karl Walsh, 52, James Christie, 48, and Martin Bain, 50. The five are accused of fraud over $5,000 and laundering the proceeds of crime through a system of secret companies and offshore investments designed to steal union money.
As detailed in an affidavit last year, the alleged investments included two Bahamas condos and $100,000 in union money wired to an income fund in the Cayman Islands. The affidavit, from RCMP Sgt. Gordon Aristotle, was used to justify Mountie raids on the Ontario Provincial Police Association office, union vehicles and the homes of Christie, Bain and Walsh in March 2015.
McKay’s lawyer David Humphrey told the Star his client “is surprised and extremely disappointed by the charges” and will vigorously fight them. Peter Brauti, who represents Chantiam, the New Jersey lawyer who organized the Blair fundraiser, said he denies all wrongdoing and that the fundraiser was “very routine” for Chantiam, who has thrown “dozens and dozens” of such events. With files from Wendy Gillis and Rachel Mendleson