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http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/704872--hazel-mccallion-a-sad-picture-of-wilting-glory
Hazel McCallion: A sad picture of wilting glory
Published On Sat Oct 03 2009
By Royson James City Columnist
Mississauga's Hazel McCallion faces a judicial review of her involvement in a $14.4 million land deal involving son Peter McCallion, after a 6-4 council vote. Here are some key dates gleaned from interviews and court documents.
2004: Peter McCallion develops idea for a hotel complex near city hall.
Jan. 31, 2007: His company, World Class Developments, and landowner OMERS sign conditional deal for land.
July-December 2007: World Class applies to lift zoning restrictions.
March 31, 2008: Mayor McCallion and senior city staff meet with World Class and potential hotel operator. Mayor says she was there only to give her vision, not influence anybody.
April 23, 2008: Mayor declares a conflict when zoning comes up.
April 30, 2008: Council postpones rezoning decision to May 21 because sale isn't finalized. Mayor is absent, though present for a meeting after.
May 21, 2008: Rezoning comes before council again. Minutes later state the mayor declared a conflict, but videotape shows she did not.
September 2008: Deal is unravelling.
Dec. 1-15, 2008: World Class and city still negotiating infrastructure fees.
Dec. 15, 2008: According to court documents, mayor attends private meeting between OMERS and World Class over OMERS' wish to back out. Says later she was only there to listen.
Jan. 9, 2009: OMERS dumps the sale.
July-August 2009: OMERS now plans to sell land to city. World Class hangs on. Issue lands in court. Affidavit by World Class's Tony DeCicco mentions mayor's presence in meetings.
Sept. 30, 2009: Council finalizes purchase; calls for judicial review after getting a legal opinion. It states McCallion was in conflict when she failed to declare, but there is no legal precedent to say she was in conflict at meetings absent of other councillors.
Hunched, gaunt and looking every day of her remarkable 88 years, the legend of Streetsville was a sad picture of wilting glory this week as her Mississauga council colleagues launched a legal inquiry to determine whether she is guilty of municipal conflict of interest.
Hazel McCallion once placed second in a competition to name the best mayor in the world. Such is her cultish following in Mississauga and beyond that the only surprise was that any mayor anywhere could be deemed better than Hurricane Hazel, Wonder Woman, the Ageless Wonder and unassailable leader of the commonwealth of Mississauga.
Yet, there she was Wednesday, sitting in the mayor's chair, chain of office falling awkwardly off her tiny shoulders, the subject of questions usually raised in lesser municipalities like Toronto and Vaughan.
Peter McCallion's business partner, Tony DeCicco, claims in a sworn affidavit that the mayor joined two meetings involving the company's hotel-convention centre project near city hall, once with a hotelier and another time with the landowner when the sale deal was falling apart. Even if McCallion declares a conflict of interest in the matter when it comes to council, should she have been at the meeting at all? Certainly there is a perception that she might favour a deal involving her kin.
At one meeting in May last year when the deal came before council, McCallion did not declare a conflict of interest. Yet she later claimed she did. And council minutes recorded her as declaring an interest. The city clerk this week acknowledged "a significant error" in the minutes when videotape of the meeting showed no such declaration. The clerk who took the minutes can't explain the "error," but says there was no political influence to alter the minutes.
Only McCallion's hardened political rivals would entertain the prospect that the probe might result in anything but a slap on the wrist for foolishly immersing herself in her son's land deals with Mississauga.
But conflict of interest is a serious matter for politicians, surpassed only by breach of trust and fraud. Courts are strict in their interpretation of indiscretions. Once the issue gets before a judge, no one knows where it might lead, what mess might be uncovered or whose reputations may be besmirched.
It's almost impossible to imagine McCallion besmirched. She is the unparalleled, unbeatable, unrivalled, indisputable Iron Lady of Mississauga.
When she told a reporter this week that she would gladly take on Councillor Carolyn Parrish in next year's election, Parrish said only a fool would run against the legend.
In fact, it's a mini-miracle that this motion got through council, where McCallion's colleagues have perennially insulated the mayor from criticism and wilted in her towering, if diminutive, presence.
McCallion rose to fame in 1979, a year after she was first elected mayor. Some 218,000 residents were evacuated when a train carrying toxic chemicals derailed, sparking a week-long crisis. McCallion was a tower of strength. A legend was born.
In 2003, McCallion, who played semi-pro women's hockey in her Montreal youth, was struck by a pickup in Streetsville. Two days later she walked out of hospital, saying, "It's just bruises; I heal quickly." People joked that the truck didn't get off that easy.
She took on the federal government over taxes paid at Pearson airport. She battled the Highway 407 consortium, again over taxes.
Blessed with highways ringing her city, cheap farmland, airport proximity, and businesses looking to flee Toronto taxes, McCallion built Mississauga almost from nothing to a thriving force.
Most residents know no other mayor. They also know decades of tax freeze, no city debt, a Triple A credit rating; and they credit Hazel for landing them in municipal Shangri-La. It's only recently, as social services costs mount and traffic congestion threatens to sour the dream, that McCallion has admitted to the planning failures critics have accused her of. They dubbed her the Queen of Sprawl. In a 2002 interview, she admitted to regrets.
"At times, we have to look back and say what could we have done better," she told the Star. "We've got a crisis in waste management in the GTA and we have a crisis in gridlock.
"We had our heads in the sand when we approved developments and located jobs wherever people wanted to put them, rather than doing some planning on where the employment should be. ... It is an awakening, that we could have done things better and we'd better not make the same mistakes in the future."
Now, too late, she's pushing for public transit.
If McCallion has been so good for so long, why the fuss over what may be a minor slip-up, even a major one?
The declaration of conflict of interest is a minimum test for our public officials. A cynical public already believes that a mayor's family, supporters, friends and financial backers have the inside track at any city hall. Even when politicians declare a conflict of interest a matter, the public quietly wonders whether there is private pressure being exerted in support of "the mayor's people."
Justice Horace Krever of the Ontario High Court of Justice explains in a case 30 years ago:
"The obvious purpose of the act is to prohibit members of councils and local boards from engaging in the decision-making process in respect to matters in which they have a personal economic interest ... or is deemed to have, any direct or indirect pecuniary interest.
"There is no need to find corruption on his part or actual loss on the part of the council or board. So long as the member fails to honour the standard of conduct prescribed by the statute, then, regardless of his good faith conduct or the propriety of his motives, he is in contravention of the statute."
Why is the bar set so high?
"This enactment ... is based on the moral principle, long embodied in our jurisprudence, that no man can serve two masters. It recognizes that the judgment of even the most well-meaning men and women may be impaired when their personal financial interests are affected."
It's not a case of being innocent until proven guilty. No, you're guilty by association, until proven innocent. And the only defence is, "It was an honest mistake." A judge may accept it but would still have to find you guilty while sparing you a penalty such as removal from office.
Wise politicians run to the hills, far away from any dealings with their family or friends. McCallion has shown poor judgment. Over the years, her son, Peter, could have saved her a lot of grief and raised eyebrows by conducting his real estate business anywhere but in Mississauga.
Instead, we may soon discover more than Mississauguans care to know.
Hazel McCallion: A sad picture of wilting glory
Published On Sat Oct 03 2009
By Royson James City Columnist
Mississauga's Hazel McCallion faces a judicial review of her involvement in a $14.4 million land deal involving son Peter McCallion, after a 6-4 council vote. Here are some key dates gleaned from interviews and court documents.
2004: Peter McCallion develops idea for a hotel complex near city hall.
Jan. 31, 2007: His company, World Class Developments, and landowner OMERS sign conditional deal for land.
July-December 2007: World Class applies to lift zoning restrictions.
March 31, 2008: Mayor McCallion and senior city staff meet with World Class and potential hotel operator. Mayor says she was there only to give her vision, not influence anybody.
April 23, 2008: Mayor declares a conflict when zoning comes up.
April 30, 2008: Council postpones rezoning decision to May 21 because sale isn't finalized. Mayor is absent, though present for a meeting after.
May 21, 2008: Rezoning comes before council again. Minutes later state the mayor declared a conflict, but videotape shows she did not.
September 2008: Deal is unravelling.
Dec. 1-15, 2008: World Class and city still negotiating infrastructure fees.
Dec. 15, 2008: According to court documents, mayor attends private meeting between OMERS and World Class over OMERS' wish to back out. Says later she was only there to listen.
Jan. 9, 2009: OMERS dumps the sale.
July-August 2009: OMERS now plans to sell land to city. World Class hangs on. Issue lands in court. Affidavit by World Class's Tony DeCicco mentions mayor's presence in meetings.
Sept. 30, 2009: Council finalizes purchase; calls for judicial review after getting a legal opinion. It states McCallion was in conflict when she failed to declare, but there is no legal precedent to say she was in conflict at meetings absent of other councillors.
Hunched, gaunt and looking every day of her remarkable 88 years, the legend of Streetsville was a sad picture of wilting glory this week as her Mississauga council colleagues launched a legal inquiry to determine whether she is guilty of municipal conflict of interest.
Hazel McCallion once placed second in a competition to name the best mayor in the world. Such is her cultish following in Mississauga and beyond that the only surprise was that any mayor anywhere could be deemed better than Hurricane Hazel, Wonder Woman, the Ageless Wonder and unassailable leader of the commonwealth of Mississauga.
Yet, there she was Wednesday, sitting in the mayor's chair, chain of office falling awkwardly off her tiny shoulders, the subject of questions usually raised in lesser municipalities like Toronto and Vaughan.
Peter McCallion's business partner, Tony DeCicco, claims in a sworn affidavit that the mayor joined two meetings involving the company's hotel-convention centre project near city hall, once with a hotelier and another time with the landowner when the sale deal was falling apart. Even if McCallion declares a conflict of interest in the matter when it comes to council, should she have been at the meeting at all? Certainly there is a perception that she might favour a deal involving her kin.
At one meeting in May last year when the deal came before council, McCallion did not declare a conflict of interest. Yet she later claimed she did. And council minutes recorded her as declaring an interest. The city clerk this week acknowledged "a significant error" in the minutes when videotape of the meeting showed no such declaration. The clerk who took the minutes can't explain the "error," but says there was no political influence to alter the minutes.
Only McCallion's hardened political rivals would entertain the prospect that the probe might result in anything but a slap on the wrist for foolishly immersing herself in her son's land deals with Mississauga.
But conflict of interest is a serious matter for politicians, surpassed only by breach of trust and fraud. Courts are strict in their interpretation of indiscretions. Once the issue gets before a judge, no one knows where it might lead, what mess might be uncovered or whose reputations may be besmirched.
It's almost impossible to imagine McCallion besmirched. She is the unparalleled, unbeatable, unrivalled, indisputable Iron Lady of Mississauga.
When she told a reporter this week that she would gladly take on Councillor Carolyn Parrish in next year's election, Parrish said only a fool would run against the legend.
In fact, it's a mini-miracle that this motion got through council, where McCallion's colleagues have perennially insulated the mayor from criticism and wilted in her towering, if diminutive, presence.
McCallion rose to fame in 1979, a year after she was first elected mayor. Some 218,000 residents were evacuated when a train carrying toxic chemicals derailed, sparking a week-long crisis. McCallion was a tower of strength. A legend was born.
In 2003, McCallion, who played semi-pro women's hockey in her Montreal youth, was struck by a pickup in Streetsville. Two days later she walked out of hospital, saying, "It's just bruises; I heal quickly." People joked that the truck didn't get off that easy.
She took on the federal government over taxes paid at Pearson airport. She battled the Highway 407 consortium, again over taxes.
Blessed with highways ringing her city, cheap farmland, airport proximity, and businesses looking to flee Toronto taxes, McCallion built Mississauga almost from nothing to a thriving force.
Most residents know no other mayor. They also know decades of tax freeze, no city debt, a Triple A credit rating; and they credit Hazel for landing them in municipal Shangri-La. It's only recently, as social services costs mount and traffic congestion threatens to sour the dream, that McCallion has admitted to the planning failures critics have accused her of. They dubbed her the Queen of Sprawl. In a 2002 interview, she admitted to regrets.
"At times, we have to look back and say what could we have done better," she told the Star. "We've got a crisis in waste management in the GTA and we have a crisis in gridlock.
"We had our heads in the sand when we approved developments and located jobs wherever people wanted to put them, rather than doing some planning on where the employment should be. ... It is an awakening, that we could have done things better and we'd better not make the same mistakes in the future."
Now, too late, she's pushing for public transit.
If McCallion has been so good for so long, why the fuss over what may be a minor slip-up, even a major one?
The declaration of conflict of interest is a minimum test for our public officials. A cynical public already believes that a mayor's family, supporters, friends and financial backers have the inside track at any city hall. Even when politicians declare a conflict of interest a matter, the public quietly wonders whether there is private pressure being exerted in support of "the mayor's people."
Justice Horace Krever of the Ontario High Court of Justice explains in a case 30 years ago:
"The obvious purpose of the act is to prohibit members of councils and local boards from engaging in the decision-making process in respect to matters in which they have a personal economic interest ... or is deemed to have, any direct or indirect pecuniary interest.
"There is no need to find corruption on his part or actual loss on the part of the council or board. So long as the member fails to honour the standard of conduct prescribed by the statute, then, regardless of his good faith conduct or the propriety of his motives, he is in contravention of the statute."
Why is the bar set so high?
"This enactment ... is based on the moral principle, long embodied in our jurisprudence, that no man can serve two masters. It recognizes that the judgment of even the most well-meaning men and women may be impaired when their personal financial interests are affected."
It's not a case of being innocent until proven guilty. No, you're guilty by association, until proven innocent. And the only defence is, "It was an honest mistake." A judge may accept it but would still have to find you guilty while sparing you a penalty such as removal from office.
Wise politicians run to the hills, far away from any dealings with their family or friends. McCallion has shown poor judgment. Over the years, her son, Peter, could have saved her a lot of grief and raised eyebrows by conducting his real estate business anywhere but in Mississauga.
Instead, we may soon discover more than Mississauguans care to know.
