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The Patti Starr affair, sometimes referred to as Pattigate or the Patti Starr scandal was a political controversy that affected the Ontario Liberal government between 1989 and 1990. Patti Starr was a fundraiser and supporter who made illegal political contributions through her role as head of a charity called the Toronto Section of the National Council of Jewish Women. Through her scheme she made $160,000 in contributions to Federal, Provincial, and Municipal politicians. In particular she contributed to Liberal campaign funds during the 1987 provincial election including those of some senior cabinet ministers. When the scheme was revealed it contributed to the downfall of the Liberal government in 1990. At the time it was one of the biggest political scandals in Ontario history. In 1989, Premier David Peterson appointed Justice Lloyd Houlden to lead a judicial inquiry into the affair. Shortly after it began Starr launched a lawsuit to have the inquiry shut down. The suit, ''Starr v. Houlden'', reached the Supreme Court of Canada which ruled that the inquiry was unconstitutional since it would impair the rights of the defendants to due process which would be available to them in a criminal trial. This decision set a precedent for future judicial inquiries including the Westray Mine disaster of 1992 and the Algo Centre Mall collapse in Elliott Lake in 2012. In 1991, Starr was found guilty of election fraud and breach of trust. She was sentenced to six months in jail but paroled after two months. In 1993, she wrote a book about her experience called ''Tempting Fate: A cautionary tale of power and politics''. In the book she argued that her sins were minor and that Peterson used her as a scapegoat to avoid scrutiny of other activities within the Liberal party and government. ==Background== In 1985, Starr was a volunteer chair of the Toronto Section of the National Council of Jewish Woman (NCJW), a charity in existence since 1897. She used this position to cultivate relationships with Federal and Provincial politicians. In particular she became close with Jim Peterson who was David Peterson's brother. She also met with Gordon Ashworth, the Premier's top aide and Principal Secretary Hershell Ezrin. She was often seen visiting the Premier's office where one staffer remarked that she would 'park her fur'. She referred to Ezrin and Ashworth as 'my babies'. Starr received direction from them as to where to target her fundraising activities. As a reward for raising money she was given the patronage appointment of the Chair of Ontario Place.〔 In the same year, NCJW (Toronto) received a loan from Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation to construct non-profit housing. The development called the ''Prince Charles Housing'' project, was to be built by Tridel. The council received a $251,000 tax rebate which Starr put into a special capital fund of the charitable foundation that operated the building project. She used nearly $90,000 of this money for questionable political contributions. Tridel also paid the council $100,000 for consulting fees for help in getting housing contract which Starr also used for political contributions. In February 1989, Linda McQuaig, working as a journalist for ''The Globe and Mail'' was investigating problems with Liberal housing policy and became aware of connections between Starr, real estate developers and the provincial government. McQuaig had received tips about 'weird' election contributions. These tips may have been made due to a dispute between Starr and John Sewell, both of whom were on the board of the Metro Toronto Housing Authority (MTHA). Sewell disagreed with Tridel's involvement with NCJW's Prince Charles housing development because the contract terms violated MTHA policy. Sewell was then fired by Housing Minister Chaviva Hošek, a close associate of Starr. McQuaig published an article that said that the NCJW had made contributions to political parties in contravention of the Charities Accounting Act. The donations were made under the direction of Starr who claimed that the contribution method was not covered under the act. Shortly after the article was published the Elections Finance Commission and the conflict-of-interest commissioner began investigations. Starr claimed that she received advice from a senior cabinet minister on how to make such political contributions and that she believed that contributions from the foundation fund would not contravene the Charities Accounting Act. She called it a loophole or a "grey area". Gordon Murray, a director at Revenue Canada said that she was mistaken and that charities were specifically barred from contributions to partisan political causes. At the NCJW, former executive director Betty Stone went to president Gloria Strom with documents showing the political contributions. Strom confronted Starr who assured her that no such contributions had been made. When Stone investigated further, Starr fired her.〔 Strom later said, "We are appalled at the allegations and their implications. The reputation of the NCJW of Canada is being blackened. The Toronto section has been in existence for 93 years and until Mrs. Starr's involvement has never had a single suggestion of misuse of funds."〔 In March 1989, the national council stripped the officers of the Toronto executive, including Starr, of their powers. In May Starr stepped down as president of the charity but denied it had anything to do with the investigation. On June 8, she resigned as chair of Ontario Place. On June 12, Attorney-General Ian Scott announced that the OPP and a special prosecutor would look into the allegations. On June 22, Gordon Ashworth announced his resignation as he admitted to receiving a free refrigerator and a new paint job for his house. Ian Scott said, "I don't know whether Ashworth received a refrigerator, but assuming he did, the interesting thing was the number of people that thought I got a fridge, if not better." On June 23, the public trustee announced that 24 politicians had received contributions during the 1987 election campaign. These included provincial Health Minister Elinor Caplan and Transportation Minister Ed Fulton. In addition Federal Conservative MP Bill Attewell and Toronto Mayor Art Eggleton also received payments. These revelations led to a cabinet shuffle by Peterson in which five ministers who had received contributions lost their positions. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Patti Starr affair」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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