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January 19, 2005
It's going to get worse for Sgro
Judy Sgro says she wants to clear her name. So, immediately in the wake of the Pizza Guy's allegations of pizzas for visas, she fled to Florida and is not taking questions from the media. That probably isn't the most effective way of proving you innocence but nothing surprises me any more.
It should never have come to this:
The one of the thing that has characterised Ms. Sgro's problems, from the Stripper Scandal to the Pizza debacle that eventually forced her resignation, is the ham-fisted manner in which she, her staff and the Prime Minister's Office have responded to the allegations.
If it had been up to me, Ms. Sgro would have stepped aside pending a report from the Ethics Commissioner. The advantage of this approach are obvious. She doesn't admit guilt but gets PR points for acknowledging that a Minister should not be exercising their broad powers while under a cloud of suspicion for abusing those powers. It also has the fringe benefit of stopping opposition and media researchers in their tracks and puts the story to bed until the Commissioner submits his report.
But Sgro didn't do that and the Prime Minister didn't ask her to. In fact, the Globe and Mail has learned that when Ms. Sgro's Chief of Staff offered his resignation in writing, the PMO responded by telling Sgro to keep Ihor Wons on her payroll.
Having sowed those seeds, Ms. Sgro and Prime Minister Martin reaped two more months of digging by journalists looking to bring down a Minister of the Crown. The Stripper Scandal, led to the Cheque Scandal which led to Pizza for Visas.
And each of those revelations had its own set of sub-scandals: "Wons holds business meetings at strip club"; "Illegal donation led to illegal tax receipt"; "Pizza Guy and family are all crooks." All of the scandals and sub-scandals have combined in the minds of the public to the point where if you asked 100 Canadians if they think Judy Sgro is guilty of "good old-fashioned influence peddling, 80 would say yes.
All of this has led media to dig deeper, get more dirt which on its own wouldn't merit a news story, but in the context of the Stripper/Cheque/Pizza scandals seem incredibly relevant and lend support to the notion that Ms. Sgro has done wrong by the people of Canada.
Further Reading:
Two claim Sgro promised to help (Toronto Star)
Don't let aide quit, PM's office told Sgro (Globe and Mail)
Singh 'misrepresented' house sale (Globe and Mail)
Sgro worker made own decision to quit, PM says (Globe and Mail)
What,when PMO knew about Sgro case (Toronto Star)
Whistleblowers talked to PMO about Sgro: report (CTV News)
Did Sgro declare pizza? (Toronto Sun)
Posted by maxthecat on January 19, 2005 at 10:16 AM | Comments (0)
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