Scanned, recopied or Internet copy, if there are errors, please e-mail me with corrections:
Opening comments: More at the end.
Interesting - recently retired - wonder what her retirement package was.
To the main Judicial Inquiry page - to the Hazel McCallion page.
Mississauga News - Aug. 9, 2010 - By Joe Chin - jchin@mississauga.net
Minutes not altered: Witness
Witness testifies. Shalini Alleluia took the stand this afternoon at the Mississauga judicial inquiry. File photo
McCallion did declare a conflict at a meeting about a month earlier, a few weeks after she and senior City of Mississauga staff took part in a first meeting with hotel company representatives interested in her son Peter McCallion’s plan to build a hotel/convention centre in the downtown core.
Although an internal investigation found no evidence the document was doctored, the subsequent uproar, in part, prompted seven councillors to call for the $5-million Mississauga judicial inquiry.
“I have no specific recollection of those meetings,” Alleluia, who retired in June after 36 years with the City, told the inquiry.
Questioned by associate commission counsel Naomi Loewith, Alleluia offered several scenarios how the mistake could have occurred.
“I am usually thorough...what can I say?” she said.
She admitted, however, that a conflict-of-interest declaration cannot be carried over to another meeting.
And Alleluia said she would not have changed the minutes at the direction of any member of Council.
“No, absolutely never,” she said, when asked whether she ever spoke to Mayor McCallion about the matter.
Alleluia noted it was her habit to dispose of her handwritten notes after one year.
“We’re not able to confirm why that statement went into the minutes,” City clerk Crystal Greer told The News following the investigation. “It’s quite evident that it was an error. It’s unfortunate that no member of the Council picked up the error when it was presented to them for approval.”
The inquiry is probing a failed $14.4-million deal brokered by Peter McCallion for land owned by the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System to build the hotel.
Among other things, the inquiry is investigating the mayor’s behind-the-scenes involvement in the land deal, even as she was, from time to time, declaring conflicts of interest at Council votes and meetings on issues involving her son’s company.
In 1981, Mayor McCallion was found by a judge to have breached conflict-of-interest rules in a debate about a development in a neighbourhood where she owned land.
Comments by others - 4 - to this web-page at time of posting;
The Mississauga Muse Aug 9, 2010 6:36 PM
@ ComeOn. Just based on video I shot of that Enersource public meeting on January 22, 2009
The GateKeeper --the Mayor's executive secretary, Carol Horvat, hasn't received near the attention warranted...
* Agree 1
Uatu Aug 9, 2010 5:36 PM
How does something that never happened "accidentally" get recorded?
No matter what Ms Alleluia says the fact remains that the minutes WERE INDEED altered. SOMEONE inserted the notation that the Mayor had declared a conflict when video of the meeting clearly reveals that she did no such thing. Now it is easy to understand an omission. Even the most thorough clerk can slip up and leave something out. This was not an omission, though. SOMEONE ADDED A DESCRIPTION OF SOMETHING THAT NEVER OCCURRED! How does that happen by accident? Everyone says Ms Alleluia is a terrific person and a careful worker. I have no reason to doubt that BUT the minutes still got doctored. I will wait for the transcripts to see what theories got put forward. Password sharing is a good one.
* Agree 2
ComeOn Aug 9, 2010 5:35 PM
Hazel Scandal Points To Other Questions Needing Answers
Remember that these minutes had two paragraphs ADDED to them. So text was added for events that never took place. So imagine you are writing a note on the things you saw and then you just start writing about things that did not take place then back to writing about the things you saw... ComeON really you believe this. Then the Mayor says emphatically she did then OOOOOOOOOOOOOOPs the video. I do not care how who or what brought in the video only that the video shows none of the declarations so emphatically asserted by the Mayor. Now any number of staff had access to the documents and I am sure that was not the reason for slipping into the terms of reference for the Inquiry that staff could not be called to testify. NO NO not at all no sir. That is just silly. Enter council that reads said section and has it removed. Now staff can be asked to testify. If we learn about actual events or not from them -- who knows.
* Agree 1
The Mississauga Muse Aug 9, 2010 4:52 PM
The Audit Committee has revealed the degree to which City staff share passwords.
But I agree. Who cooked the minutes we'll never know. Because that person ain't talkin'. (I'm surprised the conspiracy theorist haven't offered the obvious suggestion)...
* Agree 1
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