Hazel McCallion awarded $170,000 in dismissed conflict case

He stated he did not want to award an amount so high “that it deters citizens from bringing (conflict) applications,” or an amount so low “it would deter citizens from seeking public office.”

Under Ontario’s Municipal Conflict of Interest Act only residents of a municipality may bring forward conflict applications when an elected official has allegedly broken the conflict law.

Mississauga resident Elias Hazineh alleged in his application that McCallion had violated the act when she voted on development charge fees in 2007 that could have saved her son’s company $11 million on a planned $1.6-billion downtown hotel-convention centre. The project eventually failed.

The case was dismissed by Sproat on a technicality. He found Hazineh filed his application to the court too late, after he had possibly read a newspaper article about McCallion’s vote a year before, and thus missed the deadline.

Hazineh’s lawyers had argued he did not read the article, and filed the application shortly after finding out about McCallion’s actions in the fall of 2011, at the conclusion of the Mississauga Judicial Inquiry into the mayor’s dealings with her son’s project.

The decision in the case cannot be appealed.

Asked about Thursday’s cost decision, Hazineh said: “I’m holding my comment until we find out what our options are.”

McCallion did not respond to a request for comment.

The judicial inquiry, which found McCallion had broken common law principles while pushing her son’s project behind the scenes, also suggested sweeping changes to the conflict act. It recognized that it’s almost impossible for average residents to bring cases forward, given the potential costs and time involved.

The inquiry recommended the province change the law to allow authorities to file cases. More than two years later, the province has yet to act on the suggestions.

In justifying the amount awarded, Sproat stated: “Out of seven major issues (in the case) Mayor McCallion was successful on only three,” including the technicality of the application deadline.