Conservatives turf GTA candidates over urination incident, prank calls

Thestar.com
Sept. 7, 2015
By Tonda MaCharles

The Conservative campaign stumbled into the GTA Monday as it was forced to boot two of its Toronto candidates - one for prank calls reportedly involving his faking orgasms and mocking mentally disabled people, another for being caught on videotape urinating in a mug while he was on a contract call as a repairman.

A party source told the Star that Tim Dutaud, the Conservative candidate for Toronto-Danforth, was dismissed Monday morning after the party determined that reports on social media about his pranks were accurate.

The party also dismissed Jerry Bance, candidate for Scarborough-Rouge Park, on Monday, just as leader Stephen Harper was flying out of Ottawa to attend campaign events in Scarborough and Mississauga.

“There’s an expectation that candidates are truthful and complete when going through the candidate screening process, and that wasn’t the case (with Bance),” said party spokesman Kory Teneycke.

Asked at the campaign events about the candidates’ dismissal, Harper answered briefly: “What this says is we keep the highest standards for candidates and these two individuals are no longer candidates.”

“You will see new candidates,” he later added.

Dutaud’s LinkedIn profile states he worked at CBC television in “production” from 1995 to 2001, then as a radio host with “score media group” for nine years. His online profile says he was a real estate sales agent from 2013 to now and became the Conservative candidate for Toronto-Danforth last February.

He could not be reached for comment.

The other ousted candidate, Bance, had previously run for the Conservatives in the Scarborough riding in 2008 and 2006 and lost both times. He owns an appliance repair company called XPress Appliance Service, according to the CBC, whose Marketplace show exposed the urination incident.

In an email to the Star on Monday, Bance said he was “truly sorry” and that he had resigned from the campaign Monday morning. He cited health reasons for the 2012 incident.

“A 30-second decision made three years ago can really change one’s life. I had a health situation and needed to make an emergency decision, ironically to save myself from embarrassment back then,” he said. “It was a lapse in judgment, which I deeply regret today.”

Teneycke made it clear in an interview that although Bance’s statement says he resigned, “it was not optional.”

When the urination was originally broadcast in a March 2012 episode of Marketplace, the CBC did not identify him either as a past candidate or by his last name.

It wasn’t till Sunday that CBC finally identified him, reporting that Bance had been caught on a hidden camera while on a call to a home to repair a sink. He was videotaped urinating in a mug and emptying it down the sink drain.

Teneycke told the Star that Bance never disclosed the incident during routine party screening, which also includes a general question about whether the candidate is aware of anything that could arise to embarrass the party, as well as standard media reviews.

He noted the CBC did not disclose Bance’s surname in its original broadcast in 2012. However, when confronted with the CBC story Sunday, Bance did not dispute the broadcaster’s allegation.

“We were unaware of this incident. It didn’t come up in a candidate interview,” said Teneycke. “There’s no dispute as to whether it was him or not.

“When questioned on it, he indicated that was in fact him. Surprise,” he said wryly.

Teneycke would not say whose decision it was that Bance step down, only that “he’s no longer a candidate - people can read into that what they will.”

Anna Sajnovic, a Conservative party volunteer in the GTA, told the Star: “Of course it looks bad, but we got rid of them, so I think it says a lot about the integrity (of the campaign).”

Speaking to reporters before the Labour Day parade in downtown Toronto, NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair made light of the incident.

“We have, like a lot of you, taken note of the number of times Conservatives have broken the law,” he said. “I guess this was one mug shot that Canadians weren’t expecting from the Conservatives.”

Mulcair added: “This must be someone who’s adept at Stephen Harper’s trickle-down theory of economics.”

Accompanied by his wife Laureen, Harper headed into Mississauga later on Labour Day as part of a two-day swing through the GTA that will take him into Scarborough Tuesday. His campaign crossed paths with Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau, who was also in Mississauga Monday.

On Monday, Harper’s campaign platform added a promise to increase registered disability savings grants for low- and middle-income families with children with disabilities. The grants will rise to $4,000 from $3,500 - a measure estimated to cost the federal treasury $35 million a year. It is an enhancement of an existing tax-free savings plan.