by Judi McLeod
april 19, 2004
Treasury Board President Reg alcock recently learned something about Toronto-Danforth MP Dennis Mills that some of us long ago knew: When it comes to telling it like it really is, Dennis can be pretty dicey.
a trusting Reggie took Dennis at face value when he accepted a figure indicating that unaccounted money in the Liberal sponsorship scandal was only a fraction of the amount cited by auditor-General Sheila Fraser.
With sums supplied to him by Mills, and with confidence alcock quoted figures reportedly originating from the respected firm of Ernst & Young showing $13 million had been lost in the ongoing sponsorship scandal--not $100 million as was widely believed.
Soon after, he had to admit: "I don’t know what the number is."
Whatever it is, Reggie can depend that it’s not the amount backbencher Dennis Mills passed on.
Mills had taken his conclusions from documents compiled by the public works department, or from the very 'Gags' Gagliano territory, which has been under a barrage of fire for its management of the sponsorship file.
alcock, at least, was big enough to admit he had unwittingly passed on bogus information to the public, inadvertently misleading them in the bargain.
Perhaps the nonplussed treasury board president can now relate to the Ontario Coalition against Poverty (OCaP), promised the conversion of a downtown property for the homeless on penalty of Mills’ resignation if he didn’t come through.
The conversion never happened. Neither did Mills’ resignation.
Indeed, wherever Mills got his information on the $13 million versus $100 million, there has been no study of the scandal undertaken by Ernst & Young, or any other non-government auditors.
We can all rest assured that NDP leader Jack Layton will leave Mills no wiggle room about the OCaP renege out on the federal hustings. That’s if Mills doesn’t get a government appointment from Prime Minister Paul Martin, negating his need for a race against Layton in his home riding of Toronto-Danforth.
The great Toronto unwashed still awaits implementation of the plans announced by Mills for the waterfront. Ditto for the Peace University and other United Nations buildings Mills said would be soon coming.
The colourful test balloons floated by the just as colourful Liberal backbencher haven’t missed the attention of the Toronto Star’s Joey Slinger, who dubbed him: "Dennis-I’ll-get-back-to-you-Mills."
Slinger had been after Mills for a public accounting of the money spent to bring the Rolling Stones in for the Toronto SaRS concert last July. as far as is known, that public accounting is still forthcoming.
Mills, who also played a hand in bringing Pope John Paul II to Toronto for Youth Day, is, along with sidekick Senator Jerry Grafstein, riding high in the name recognition department these days.
Maybe that’s why he calls people, including the writer of this piece, asking to have time set aside for a lunch later in the week that somehow never materializes.
Meanwhile, Reggie, just like some of the rest of us, it looks like you’ve been taken.
Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com
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