Dean Del Mastro, the former parliamentary secretary to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, was scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 21, 2014, but won a delay until Tuesday after hiring a new attorney, prominent Toronto defence lawyer Leo Adler. Photo: Glenn Lowson/Postmedia News Files The time set aside for former Conservative MP Dean Del Mastro’s sentencing hearing on Tuesday may be taken up with debate over a motion brought by Del Mastro’s new lawyer.
On Oct. 31, Justice Lisa Cameron found Del Mastro guilty of three Elections Act violations in his 2008 campaign in Peterborough, Ont. He is facing a maximum sentence of three years in prison and $6,000 in fines.
Del Mastro, the former parliamentary secretary to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, was scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 21, but won a delay until Tuesday after hiring a new attorney, prominent Toronto defence lawyer Leo Adler.
After taking over the case from Peterborough lawyer Jeff Ayotte, Adler reviewed the transcript and submitted a motion to Cameron.
It is believed to be a motion to dismiss the guilty finding, but the document is not available at the courthouse and neither Adler nor Crown attorney Tom Lemon would confirm that Adler is seeking to have the verdict set aside.
“He has brought a motion that will have to be dealt with but it is scheduled for a sentencing hearing,” Lemon said in an interview. “Ultimately, these things are all up to Justice Cameron as to how we proceed.”
It will be up to Cameron to decide how much time to give to debating Adler’s motion and how much will be given over to submissions about Del Mastro’s sentencing.
There were originally three hours scheduled for sentencing but after Adler submitted his motion, Lemon requested that the whole day be set aside.
Neither Adler nor Lemon has submitted their recommendations for Del Mastro’s sentence.
On the day Cameron announced her verdict, Lemon signalled he would ask for a custodial sentence and Ayotte said he would seek a fine.
If the court finds time to consider sentencing, Cameron is expected to listen to submissions and reserve judgment. There are few precedents for sentences in this kind of case.
In November, former Conservative campaign worker Michael Sona was sentenced to nine months in prison for his role in a fraudulent Guelph, Ont., robocall on the day of the 2011 election. He served 13 days of his sentence before freed while both Crown and defence both appeal the sentence.
On the day he was found guilty, a defiant Del Mastro questioned the judge’s ruling.
“That’s her opinion,” he told reporters. “I respect the judge, but at the same time I know the truth.”
He also said that he didn’t intend to give up his seat in the House of Commons but resigned after NDP MPs began to call for his expulsion, which might have jeopardized his pension.
Del Mastro was convicted of exceeding the spending and donation limits in the 2008 election and producing a false document to cover up a personal payment of $21,000 he used to pay for electoral calls. His campaign’s official agent, Richard McCarthy, was also found guilty of two counts.
In finding Del Mastro guilty, Cameron said that evidence he offered was “incredible,” full of “inconsistencies and improbabilities,” and that Del Mastro “frequently obfuscated.”
In October 2014, Del Mastro’s cousin, Mississauga, Ont., electrical contractor David Del Mastro, was charged with breaking the Elections Act by concealing the source of donations to Del Mastro’s campaign and exceeding the donation limit.
Documents filed in court by Elections Canada investigators allege that David Del Mastro paid employees at his company $50 each to make $1,000 donations to Dean Del Mastro’s 2008 campaign, funnelling $22,000 in total. The contractor denies the allegations. Dean Del Mastro has said it has nothing to do with him.
smaher@postmedia.com
@stphnmaher
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