NDP wants Volpe leadership donations probed

Updated Tue. May. 30 2006 6:38 AM ET

Canadian Press

OTTAWA -- The NDP has asked the federal elections commissioner to investigate whether Liberal leadership hopeful Joe Volpe deliberately circumvented the law banning corporate political donations.

MP Pat Martin filed a complaint with commissioner Raymond Landry on Monday, following a weekend report that Volpe received $54,000 in separate donations from the top two executives at generic drug manufacturer Apotex Inc., their wives and six children.

Martin doubted the children -- four of them teenagers -- would "choose to donate their life savings'' to Volpe's campaign.

"This is a deliberate and well-orchestrated fraud on the Elections Act donations limit rules,'' Martin told reporters outside the House of Commons.

Inside the Commons, he accused the Liberal party of condoning Volpe's "deliberate and premediated fraud to circumvent'' the ban on corporate donations.

Volpe's campaign shot back with a threat to sue Martin.

"Every contribution is in full compliance,'' said Volpe spokesman Corey Hobbs.

"Any statement made by Mr. Martin or repeated will be treated as slanderous and libellous and dealt with in the appropriate manner.''

While a company may not contribute to a leadership campaign, the law allows all individuals, including a company's executives, employees and family members, to donate up to a maximum of $5,400 each.

According to a statement of contributions filed by Volpe with Elections Canada, Apotex CEO Barry Sherman, his wife, Honey, and their four children each gave $5,400.

Apotex president Jack Kay, his wife, Patricia, and two children also gave $5,400 each to the Toronto MP's leadership bid.

To guard against companies trying to bypass the ban on corporate donations, the law includes several clauses making it a crime for any individual to "act in collusion'' with others to circumvent the donation limits and prohibitions.

Among other things, it is illegal to conceal the identity of donors, to compensate a person for making a donation, or to make a donation that actually comes from another person.

Steven MacKinnon, the Liberal party's national director, last week said that there was "certainly nothing illegal at all'' about Volpe's donations.

Given the party's lack of concern, Martin said he's asked Landry to investigate donations to all Liberal candidates dating back to the law's inception in 2004.

Martin also demanded that the Conservative government find "legislative solutions ... to teach the Liberal party the difference between right and wrong.''

Treasury Board President John Baird gleefully declined to "defend the corruption from the Liberal members opposite.''

Outside the Commons, Baird refused to say whether he believes Volpe has violated the political financing law.

Baird dismissed suggestions that the law contains loopholes that need to be closed, observing that "wherever you regulate . . . people will always look for ways around it.''

However, he said the government's recently introduced Federal Accountability Act is the best way to minimize the effect of attempts to skirt the law.

The act would ban corporate donations for election candidates, in addition to leadership contestants. And it would reduce the limit for personal donations to $1,000.

Martin noted that penalties for breaking the current law are "very, very severe.'' An MP could lose his or her seat or be barred from running for re-election.

Volpe is one of 11 leadership contenders in the Liberal race, which culminates Dec. 3 in Montreal.