If Maurizio Bevilacqua Wants to Clean up Vaughan I Know Where he Should Sweep

404 System Error, score another home run with their exposure of some questionable financing in Julian Fantino's campaign.

Seems Fantino is running two separate accounts, in a non-transparent fashion, one with a balance of $300,000.

Why two accounts and why were the records of only one of the accounts presented to Elections Canada?

Is Fantino accepting donations over the $1,100.00 limit imposed by our current government?

As a former Mike Harris crony, nothing that Julian Fantino does surprises me.  He had quite a reputation back in the day.

NOW magazine reported in October of 1999, of:   Fantino's Conservative ties to (Mike) Harris and the law-and-order platform ... "The kind of policing Fantino embodies is the scary part. The steroid boys will get a free hand. It'll be road-boss country again." It's moving the policing discussion a huge step backward," says another councillor, recalling the "kiddie porn" busts Fantino presided over in London that, when all was said and done, amounted mostly to an anti-gay witch hunt."

And a month later when he was handed the job of police Chief in Toronto:  "... firm signals from the Progressive Conservative government at Queen's Park that Mr. Fantino is the man Mike Harris and his people have wanted for the job."  His appointment was political and not based on merit.

Harris wanted to put a tough face on his so-called "law and order" agenda, and Fantino's was that face.  Sadly, that's all he brought to the job, as one retired RCMP Sgt from Caledonia says: “Fantino was a complete joke as far as law and order was concerned”

The case of Peter Shoniker is a perfect example.  Shoniker was a fundraiser for Mike Harris and the boys, who was caught in a sting involving money laundering.  Seems Shoniker washed clean $700,000 and outright stole another $50,000.

When he was approached by an undercover RCMP corporal in 2003, and asked for help to launder $250,000, money he said was stolen from the pension fund of a Hamilton union, Shoniker readily obliged. He told Cpl. Lewis he would use his special status as a lawyer to evade police surveillance. And he bragged about his connections to highly placed police officers:.“I'm untouchable, untouchable by the police. Not a cop in this country who would dare burn me, question my integrity.”

And indeed at his trial, guess who came to his rescue?  Yep.  Julian Fantino, who painted Shoniker as a saint.

Fantino knew how to play the game.  Attack the gay community but make sure that your Conservative friends are taken care of.

Another example of this was brought to light in April of 2011, when it was revealed that Fantino had secured a $10 million federal grant for a hospital in Vaughan, that appears to have been given under false pretenses.  In fact, two members of Fantino's re-election team resigned over the scandal. 'Two Vaughan Conservatives have quit their riding association over a $10 million federal grant given to a health care project spearheaded by MP Julian Fantino’s former fundraisers.'

And the two former fundraisers in question?  'Michael DeGasperis, the hospital group’s chair, and Sam Ciccolini, the director, ran Fantino’s successful byelection fundraising campaign in November 2010.'

Now go back to the leaked documents on 404.  Who is handling these questionable transactions?   Sam Ciccolini and Michael Degasperis.  Recipients of the $10 million gift.  And as the Star notes, this money is not even going to the hospital, which is a provincial expense, but is 'earmarked to help develop a site for health-related facilities to complement a hospital.'  Private, for profit, health care.  As yet there are no shovels in the ground.

There needs to be an investigation into this, but now that the RCMP are not allowed to investigate the government, one of their primary jobs, fat chance of that happening.

The new mayor of Vaughan, Maurizio Bevilacqua,  is determined to clean up Dodge, ending backroom deals and changing their reputation as the “City Above the Law”.

But until they get rid of Fantino and his cronies, I'm afraid it will be a futile effort.

A Deceptive Democracy: Guy Giorno and Peter Shoniker

In August of 2006, Peter Shoniker, former Ontario crown prosecutor; pleaded guilty to money laundering and theft. The case came about after an undercover RCMP agent caught Shoniker on tape suggesting that he could launder money easily since he was "untouchable" by the police.

This claim was not without merit, since he had been personally responsible for Julian Fantino being named the Toronto Chief of Police. Mind you a lot of things that Shoniker often bragged about were greatly embellished.

However, the fact remains that a sting was set up and he swallowed the bait.

Because of his own statements and the fact that a lot of high profile people showed up in court to speak for his character, he was described in the news reports, as a Mike Harris "Tory insider". Any journalist who wanted to confirm Shoniker's statements would find that he had indeed contributed $ 15,000.00 to Ernie Eves leadership campaign as well as $ 5,000.00 to Tony Clement's.

However, Guy Giorno, described as Harris's "Rasputin", and now Stephen Harper's chief of staff, got himself into a flap over the claims. But instead of just going about setting the record straight, if he felt the media had misspoke, he decided to engage in a bit of partisan ankle biting.

In a column he wrote for the National Post (1), he suggested that the media was being biased for linking Shoniker with Mike Harris, while ignoring another story about a Liberal insider who had posted on a website his anger over the Lebanon bombing by Israel, and Harper's tepid response.

In his anger he lambasted Israel and praised Hezbollah, something allowed in a healthy democracy. At best his comments could be deemed misguided.

But Girono would have none of it. He accused Thomas Hubert of anti-Semitism, painting him as a "Jew Hater". The Canada-Israel Committee picked up the story and issued a press release calling on the Liberal party to suspend Mr. Hubert and repudiate his "reprehensible" statements. Which they did.

Now one might argue that there is a big difference between stealing $700,000.00 dollars, when you are a crown prosecutor, and making some ridiculous comments on a message board criticizing a country. But this story was even uglier than that.

You see, Thomas Hubert was only seventeen-years-old, and a member of the Young Liberals. But Guy Giorno making this such a public matter was devastating for the young lad, who couldn't possibly defend himself against Giorno, who is a corporate attorney, and one of the most powerful men in the country. And if this is his moral compass, and he is now directing Stephen Harper's every move, we need to be angry about this.

We try to encourage young people to get involved, and while high paid senators feel the need to publicly question "freedom of speech" because of poor Ann Coulter, then they need to question why this high school student was treated this way, just to score a few partisan brownie points. That was the story here.

Thomas Hubert is not a skinhead. He doesn't go around frightening the soccer moms in Tsawwassen, the sunny suburb where he lives. He is not an arsonist, a gangster, or a crack dealer. No matter what the National Post says, Thomas Hubert is not a Jew hater. He certainly isn't in his “early twenties”, and he has never run an “anti-Israel” Web site.

Thomas Hubert is a gifted, slightly chubby 17-year-old in jeans and a striped blue shirt with an eyebrow stud and dyed black hair. In early August, he posted some stupid comments on a couple of Web sites. The next thing you know, he's a national punching bag ... The spin cycle of the week of August 21 was a living hell for the boy. (2)

"For the boy." What a wonderful message the "adults" sent him.

Sources:

1. Who is Peter Shoniker? And who is Thomas Hubert? I found myself asking these questions earlier this week after each did something that was -- or at least should have been -- newsworthy, By Guy Giorno, National Post, August 23, 2006

2. Hubert was vilified for the usual utterances, Straight Goods, August 31, 2006