Justice Lisa Cameron has sentenced Dean Del Mastro, the
former Conservative MP for Peterborough, to thirty days in jail for
overspending about $20,000 on his 2008 election campaign.
(Scroll down for video footage by Pamela VanMeer).
(Scroll down for video footage by Pamela VanMeer).
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| Del Mastro was optimistic at first |
Del Mastro, 44, had already been found guilty on three
counts of election fraud related to overspending, both on his personal and his
campaign limit. The jail sentence is for the first two counts – each of 30 days, to be served concurrently, (i.e. both at the same time, as opposed to consecutively, which would have been 60 days).
After Del Mastro is released, he is to serve four months of
house arrest, and will be on probation for an additional 18 months. He also has
to pay back $10,000 that Cameron has determined he owed to his riding association.
Cameron delivered an even-handed yet withering assessment of
Del Mastro’s crimes.
She stated that Mr. Del Mastro “spent too much money and
knew it,” that there was “time to reflect,” and that the “overspending could and
should have been avoided.”
And though Mr. Del Mastro’s official agent, retired
accountant Richard McCarthy, was also found guilty, he will not be going to
jail, but will only see house arrest and probation. And why is that? Because Mr.
McCarthy showed remorse, reflection, and insight. According to Cameron he “deserves
credit for that.”
Cameron expressed concern with regard to politicians like Del
Mastro who “break rules” and are “deceitful.” She said that the “the election
process relies in large measure on the honesty of the participants” and that “the
victim here is Canadian society.”
She kept going. “Cheating is cheating,” she said, adding
that this sort of behavior is the “antithesis of Canadian democracy.”
This is why, though Justice Cameron said that jail time must
be considered a last resort, she in effect had no choice. Del Mastro had brought us all to this sordid end game. He was, said Cameron, “the main driver of the
offense,” with McCarthy being “much less culpable.”
On the scale of blameworthiness, therefore, she put Del
Mastro at the “high end” and McCarthy at the “low end”. The sentences, she said, were necessary to “contribute
to the respect for law.”
This is a far cry from the Dean Del Mastro who served as
parliamentary secretary to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, and who was Harper’s
point man on the Commons ethics committee, even helping to write the law that
will govern this year’s election.
Back on August 8, 2008, a month before the writ was dropped for
the election period where Del Mastro committed his crimes, he had some choice
quotes for Galen Eagle at the Peterborough Examiner:
Del Mastro: "We
like to talk about justice issues because we want to act on them, and the
opposition parties don't like to talk about justice issues because they are
soft on crime."
Del Mastro: "If
you build respect for the justice system and society, put deterrents in place,
you'll see less crime."
Del Mastro: "You
don't ever want to justify a lenient sentence because we're having problems
with providing enough beds in prisons ... that's not an excuse for not running
a proper justice system."
During the sentencing Del Mastro appeared calm. He turned
once to wink to his mother. He will appeal because, as he said when entering
the courthouse, he intends to “do whatever is necessary to stand for the
truth.”
(TE Wilson is the author of Mezcalero, a Detective Sánchez novel. )
Footage by Pamela VanMeer:
This may be the most powerful political footage I've ever seen.
pic.twitter.com/TgyauTk8VY
#cdnpoli
— James Smith (@JsrSmith) June 25, 2015
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