MP Del Mastro Explains His Side of the Story in Elections Act Case

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

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Embattled MP Dean Del Mastro has finally unveiled his side of the story about how the events unfolded during the election of 2008 in a Peterborough, Ont., courtroom on Thursday. Del Mastro alleged that he never sent or received the series of emails pertaining information related to campaign calls.

In his remarks at the court hearing, Del Mastro described the emails as “ridiculous” and said that “this electronic discussion did not take place.” He recurrently stressed that “I did not write them.” The emails were unsurfaced from the laptop of Frank Hall that was seized by RCMP computer forensic experts. Hall’s now-defunct voter-contact firm, Holinshed Research Group, allegedly made calls for Del Mastro’s campaign during the election. Del Mastro’s lawyer, Jeffrey Ayotte, read a series of emails to him, all of which he straightforwardly denied knowing about. De Mastro added that he had asked his assistant to get his copies of email exchanges from the House of Commons Information Technology department but that the records no longer exist.

The Peterborough MP is charged with violating the Elections Act by exceeding the spending and donation limits in his 2008 election campaign. Del Mastro is accused of paying the calls with a backdated personal cheque and asking Hall to backdate invoices so that the paper trail would show the transaction to have taken place outside the election period. When questioned in court by Ayotte if “you heard Mr. Hall say that you asked him to backdate an invoice,” Del Mastro said that “that’s absurd” and “I would not do that.”