{"id":137,"date":"2007-09-07T04:10:00","date_gmt":"2007-09-07T12:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.chicobandido.com\/blog\/?p=137"},"modified":"2007-09-07T04:10:00","modified_gmt":"2007-09-07T12:10:00","slug":"mpps-call-for-police-investigation-of-mcguintys-government","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chicobandido.com\/blog\/2007\/09\/mpps-call-for-police-investigation-of-mcguintys-government\/","title":{"rendered":"MPP&#8217;s call for police investigation of McGuinty&#8217;s government"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As if we didn&#8217;t already have enough reasons to vote the Ontario Liberal government out of office, here&#8217;s another.<br \/><span class=\"fullpost\"><\/p>\n<p>ROBERT W. RUNCIMAN, MPP<br \/>Leeds-Grenville<\/p>\n<p>PETER KORMOS, MPP<br \/>Niagara Centre<\/p>\n<p>For Immediate Release<br \/>September 6, 2007<\/p>\n<p>PC AND NDP MPP\u2019s call for police investigation of \u201cslushgate\u201d<\/p>\n<p>(Toronto) &#8211;  Progressive Conservative and New Democratic MPP\u2019s joined forces today to call for a police investigation into a scandal involving $32 million in grants to multicultural groups by the McGuinty Liberal government.<\/p>\n<p>Bob Runciman (MPP Leeds-Grenville), a former Solicitor General and Peter Kormos (MPP Niagara Centre), a former criminal defence lawyer, released a letter to Ontario Attorney General Michael Bryant requesting a police investigation into \u201cfinancial misconduct\u201d by political officials in the distribution of \u201chighly questionable\u201d grants made at the fiscal year end over the last two years.<\/p>\n<p>In late July, Ontario\u2019s Auditor General released a review of the decision-making process used in the distribution of grants.  His findings and scathing criticism detailing the lack of control and transparency as the money was doled out, led to the resignation of Citizenship Minister Mike Colle.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Auditor\u2019s report left a basketful of unanswered questions, many beyond the Auditor\u2019s purview to investigate and some raising issues of criminality\u201d asserted Runciman.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Auditor\u2019s report was not an investigation of civil or criminal wrongdoing rather it was a quick and narrowly scoped review that confirmed financial misconduct\u201d said Kormos.  \u201cWe still have no answers for why the misconduct occurred and how these improper benefits were sought or bestowed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In calling for the police investigation the veteran MPPs\u2019 argue, citing various sections of the Criminal Code, that criminal misconduct remains a potential explanation for the actions in question and the citizens of Ontario have a right to answers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Auditor General did his job, now it\u2019s time to get to the bottom of this by having the police investigate\u201d said Runciman.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s over to Mr. Bryant to do his job\u201d added Kormos.<\/p>\n<p>-30-<\/p>\n<p>Contact:<br \/>Bob Runciman (416) 325-1522<br \/>Peter Kormos (416) 325-7106<br \/><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As if we didn&#8217;t already have enough reasons to vote the Ontario Liberal government out of office, here&#8217;s another. ROBERT W. RUNCIMAN, MPPLeeds-Grenville PETER KORMOS, MPPNiagara Centre For Immediate ReleaseSeptember 6, 2007 PC AND NDP MPP\u2019s call for police investigation of \u201cslushgate\u201d (Toronto) &#8211; Progressive&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,3,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-ontario","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chicobandido.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chicobandido.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chicobandido.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chicobandido.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chicobandido.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.chicobandido.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chicobandido.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chicobandido.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chicobandido.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}