Federal Liberal leadership candidate Joe Volpe is coming under fire after documents showed that teenaged children — whose fathers worked at a major drug company — each made $5,400 donations to his campaign.
Joe Volpe was minister of citizenship and immigration in the Paul Martin government. (Canadian Press)
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According to the Globe and Mail, the donations were among 20 separate gifts of $5,400 made in April by five current or former executives at generic drug maker Apotex Inc., their wives and their children. The donations add up to $108,000.
The federal Elections Act specifies that companies cannot make donations to leadership campaigns, and sets a limit of $5,400 for donations from individuals.
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It also makes it an offence to make a donation that actually comes from another person or to act "in collusion" with others to get around the act's limitations.
NDP member of Parliament Pat Martin filed an official complaint about the donations on Monday, asking elections commissioner Raymond Landry to investigate whether an attempt had been made to circumvent the Elections Act.
Martin also wants Landry to look at all donations made to Liberal candidates since 2004.
While some of the Apotex executives' children are adults, Martin told reporters, he doubted the four teenagers on the list would "choose to donate their life savings" in an effort to get Volpe elected as the new leader of the Liberal Party of Canada.
The member of Parliament from Toronto is one of 11 candidates in the race to succeed former prime minister Paul Martin.
Volpe spokesman threatens to sue
A spokesman for Volpe, Corey Hobbs, said all the donations were legitimate and threatened to sue over Pat Martin's allegations.
"Any statement made by Mr. Martin or repeated will be treated as slanderous and libellous and dealt with in the appropriate manner," Hobbs said, according to the Canadian Press.
Interim Liberal leader Bill Graham and Steven MacKinnon, the party's national director, have both defended the donations in recent days.
For major violations of the Elections Act, an MP can be stripped of his or her seat and barred from seeking re-election.
Five executives, relatives all made donations
The people who made the donations at the heart of the controversy are listed in a statement that Volpe filed with Elections Canada, as the Elections Act requires.
They are:
Apotex CEO Barry Sherman, as well as his wife and four children. Apotex president Jack Kay, as well as his wife and two children. Apotex International president Craig Baxter and three people with the same last name who live at the same address. Apotex vice-president Michael Florence. Former Apotex vice-president Allen Shechtman, as well as his wife and three children.