Di Biase's legal challenge to be heard next week

Yorkregion.com
May 13, 21016
By Adam Martin-Robbins

Vaughan Deputy Mayor Michael Di Biase’s bid to quash a damning report by the city’s ethics czar and overturn the penalty imposed by city council based on her findings last year is slated to be heard in a Toronto courtroom next week.

Below is a timeline of events leading to next week’s court hearing:

April 14, 2015

• Vaughan Integrity Commissioner Suzanne Craig tables a preliminary report laying out her initial findings from a four-month investigation into Di Biase’s behaviour at city hall triggered by a complaint from Di Biase’s longtime political rival and city hall watcher Richard Lorello.
• Among Craig’s findings: the veteran politician and former mayor used intimidation and abusive language to pressure city staff who opposed his interference in the city’s tendering process to secure municipal projects for local construction firm, Maystar General Contractors. (Craig didn’t investigate Maystar and there’s nothing in her reports to indicate the company did anything wrong.)
• Di Biase’s lawyer, Morris Manning, appeared before city councillors to halt the ethics probe and have the matter handed over to an “independent person,” but council rejected his request.

April 21, 2015

• Craig brings forward her final 97-page report laying out further details about her probe and recommending Di Biase be docked 90-days pay, the stiffest penalty allowed under the Municipal Act.
• Manning argues, unsuccessfully, that, among other things, the investigation lacked “procedural fairness” as Di Biase wasn’t given the names of 32 people who made allegations against him so that he could adequately respond.
• Councillors vote unanimously to impose the 90-day pay suspension

April 30, 2015

• The Vaughan Citizen breaks the news that York Regional Police’s Major Fraud Unit, in conjunction with the OPP, has launched a criminal investigation into Di Biase and is looking into a number of city contracts signed during his more than two decades in municipal politics including his time as mayor.
• The OPP subsequently takes charge of the investigation to avoid any hint of conflict of interest as Di Biase sits on regional council and votes on the police board budget. He’s also a past member of the police services board.

June 15, 2015

• Manning, Di Biase’s lawyer, files an application with the Divisional Court in Toronto seeking a judicial review in order to squelch the integrity commissioner’s report and overturn the pay suspension imposed by city council

Tuesday May 17, Wednesday May 18, 2016

• The matter is to be heard in an Osgoode Hall courtroom starting at 10 a.m. both days