Scanned, recopied or Internet copy, if there are errors, please e-mail me with corrections: Opening comments: More at the end. Mississauga News - Oct 25, 2006 - Tahmina Reza, Special Councillor's brother sends bogus e-mail In an election laden with accusations and allegations of dirty tricks, the brother of Ward 7 City Councillor Nando Iannicca has been caught sending bogus e-mails to a rival candidate. Sandro Iannicca, who said he is a member of his brother's re-election team, admits to posing as a female ratepayer and sending e-mails to upstart candidate Shane McNeil. The e-mails were discovered to be fake, said McNeil, because Sandro Iannicca's name was listed as the sender of the correspondence. Last night Sandro Iannicca said he used a pseudonym in his e-mails to McNeil because he thought the candidate would not engage him otherwise. "I was concerned about things on his website," said Sandro Iannicca. "Honestly, I thought I could educate him a bit." In the first e-mail he challenges McNeil on his residency: "Thanks for expressing an interest in running for Council. As you know it is hard to take a Council candidate seriously who does not actually live in the ward." The e-mail is signed "Rita Forbes." Even though he was aware the e-mail came from the incumbent's relative, McNeil said he responded by indicating he did live in the ward. It wasn't until a second e-mail that McNeil confronted Sandro about his true identity. In a final e-mail Sandro Iannicca came clean and admitted he is Nando's brother. He apologized, stating that he was acting as a concerned family member. In an interview with The News, Nando Iannicca said he didn't know anything about his brother's e-mails until after the exchange with McNeil. "After I had seen the e-mails I said, 'Sandro, don't waste time on this guy,'" said Nando Iannicca. "I think it's foolish (sending the e-mails). It was a dumb thing to do, without question." Nando Iannicca said his brother is not an active member of his campaign team and is not in on decision making. He said Sandro is just delivering some of his campaign literature. McNeil said he believed the initial e-mail was sent to intimidate him. "It was as if to say, 'If you don't live in the riding, then what are you doing running here?'" said McNeil. After receiving the second e-mail, McNeil said he thought they were just fearful of his campaign. Sandro Iannicca said there was no intimidation intended, he just wanted McNeil to get his facts straight on some of the election issues. Home Page - Main Table of Contents - Back up a page - Back to Top [COMMENTS BY DON B. - ] |
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