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• Louie Rosella
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• Mar 11, 2013 - 10:57 AM
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Mayor admits son's company would benefit: court documents

On the record. Court records show that mayor conceded during cross-examination that she knew from early on she would have to declare a conflict when it came to her son's project. File photo

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MISSISSAUGA —Mayor Hazel McCallion conceded during cross-examination in her conflict of interest case that her son's company would have potentially benefited from bylaw amendments she introduced at Peel Region Council and later voted on, according to new court documents.
Excerpts from the mayor's lengthy cross-examination earlier this year were made public for the first time in a factum filed in Brampton court last  Wednesday (March 6) by her accuser, Elias Hazineh, 60, a longtime Mississauga resident.
In the factum, which outlines Hazineh's case against the longtime mayor, it states McCallion, while being cross-examined by Hazineh's lawyer, Thomas Richardson, agrees that her son's company, World Class Developments, would be one of the projects to potentially benefit from the bylaw amendment, “if they were in the City’s system.”
But McCallion later states that she didn't know when WCD was in the system and she didn't make inquiries to that effect, the factum states.
The mayor also conceded during cross-examination that she knew from early on she would have to declare a conflict when it came to her son's project, according to the factum.
McCallion states in her cross-examination that she "knew from day one" that her son was involved.
"And whether it was a real estate or whatever it was, it makes no difference with a Conflict of Interest Act, you declare it,” the mayor said.
Back in January, McCallion, along with Hazineh and others involved in the conflict case, underwent intense cross-examination from lawyers on both sides over the affidavits they filed.
The transcripts from those cross-examinations will be heavily relied upon when Hazineh's application accusing the mayor of conflict of interest is heard April 8-19.
Hazineh, who filed the conflict of interest charge in late 2011, says in his factum the mayor either knew or "should have known" about Peter McCallion's ownership interest in WCD, the company looking to build a four-star hotel in the City Centre, and the fact he would save a good deal of money if the bylaw was changed.
"Actual knowledge that a matter voted on will affect a member's pecuniary interest is not required where the interest actually exists and the respondent's lack of knowledge amounts to willful blindness," Hazineh says in his submission.
McCallion has maintained that, while she knew of WCD and that her son was a part of the project back in 2007, she didn't know the now-defunct company actually had filed a site plan application when she voted on the bylaw amendments at Peel Region Council.
Hazineh's factum suggests McCallion had to have known more about her son's role.
McCallion is in Florida. Her lawyer, Freya Kristjanson, wouldn't comment last Thursday (March 7) on Hazineh's factum, but did say her client would also be filing a submission with the court soon.
In her affidavit, filed last November, the mayor says she wasn't in conflict of interest when she voted on Region of Peel bylaw amendments that stood to save her son's company as much as $11 million in development fees.
McCallion voted in favour of new development charges while allowing companies such as her son's to pay the old fees.
McCallion, 92, acknowledges she introduced amendments and voted on the 2007 Development Charges Bylaw, but denies being in conflict.
"I believed, and continue to believe, that the bylaw itself was a bylaw of general application such that all individuals in Peel are affected, and would be affected for a period of approximately five years," she said.
The News reported last year the development charges bylaw applied to more than 80 projects in Mississauga, not just the one involving Peter McCallion's company, according to William McDowell, commission counsel at the Mississauga judicial inquiry.
However, Hazineh's lawyer disputes that number, saying the bylaw would have applied to only 18 projects.
Hazineh and his lawyer also dispute the mayor's contention that the bylaw she voted on was one of "general application" and affected the public as a whole, not just her son's project.
McCallion declared a conflict of interest when the WCD project came on the City Council agenda on April 23, 2008.
Hazineh's application seeks an order that McCallion be removed from both her City of Mississauga and Region of Peel seats if found guilty.
None of the allegations have been proven in court.
lrosella@mississauga.net