Court Finds MP Dean Del Mastro Guilty of Campaign Overspending

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

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Justice Lisa Cameron has announced to have found Dean Del Mastro and Richard McCarthy, his official agent from the 2008 election campaign, guilty on the three counts of violating the Elections Act on Friday. The court ruling alleged that the suspects exceeded the election spending limit in the campaign and took steps to hide that, while Del Mastro also exceeded his personal donation limit in the campaign. The ruling seems to be the end of Del Mastro’s political career.

Judge Cameron spent almost 10 minutes just for systematically dismantling the evidence that Del Mastro gave, alleging it to be “incredible,” riddled with “inconsistencies and improbabilities,” and that Del Mastro “frequently obfuscated.” She stressed that “I am prepared to draw an adverse inference with respect to Del Mastro’s credibility,” accepting the evidence of the Crown’s star witness, Frank Hall, former CEO of Holinshed. Hall recorded his testimony for almost six days in July, which stated that his firm carried out $21,000 worth of voter-identification calls for Del Mastro during the campaign.

A spokeswoman for the Commissioner of Canada Elections, Michelle Laliberte, clarified on Thursday that once Del Mastro was convicted, he would no longer have a seat in the House of Commons. It was explained that “the act says that anyone who is convicted of having committed an offence that is considered to be illegal under the act is not entitled to be elected or to sit in the House of Commons,” adding that “in the case of an illegal practice, the ban is for five years from the date of conviction.”