Hard feelings remain as plan to pay councillor's legal bills rescinded

Council voted unanimously Wednesday, Jan. 27, to rescind its offer to pay the $65,000 in legal bills and other costs the councillor accumulated unsuccessfully defending a libel suit stemming from the last election. At the same time, councillors asked for a report on how they might establish an insurance fund for candidates to cover the costs of defending in lawsuits and compliance audits.

But although Heaps himself had publicly refused the $65,000 originally offered by council in December, it was clear that many on council saw him as being profoundly wronged in the electoral and legal battle he had engaged in with his opponent in that election, Michelle Berardinetti.

"What happened in this case?" said Mayor David Miller, in a scathing speech to his colleagues on the council floor. "A man ran for an elected office against a powerful political machine. He ran against the wife of the local MPP. He sought office for the best political reasons. This was not a rich man, this was an ordinary man."

Heaps won the election by just 89 votes against Berardinetti, who is married to Scarborough Southwest MPP Lorenzo Berardinetti.

Following the election, Berardinetti's campaign manager - and her husband's executive assistant - brought a compliance audit complaint against Heaps, which was dismissed by the city and finally the courts. It cost Heaps more than $80,000 to defend, and in 2008 council voted to reimburse that money.

Last December was when council voted to reimburse Heaps for $65,000 he paid out to deal with a libel suit brought by Berardinetti herself.

Heaps finally settled with her, admitting in writing that a newspaper column he distributed prior the vote in 2006 praising him and disparaging her might have led to his victory.

Miller said Heaps' use of the daily newspaper column late in the election was similar to what many councillors have done.

"He won narrowly and like many do he circulated one of the endorsements," he said. "It said...he was the right candidate and took a little poke at his opponent - perhaps one that was inappropriate. And he was sued for libel."

Miller concluded: "We have a duty to the people of Toronto and that is to ensure decent, ordinary people who run for office do not become subject to political chill and allow powerful people or people with a vendetta to change elections by the cost of legal fees."

Miller's speech opened the floodgates at council.

Scarborough-Agincourt Councillor Mike Del Grande accused Miller of attacking Michelle Berardinetti in absentia.

"I spoke to that 'political machine' and they had to mortgage their house," he said. "To stand up and in my opinion slander someone who's not here to defend themselves - that's wrong. How about listening to the other side of the coin?"

Toronto's budget chief Shelley Carroll, meanwhile, said the city needs to look at performing things like compliance audits prior to elections.

"Where this has happened, the issue of vengeance suits has largely been resolved by pre-election day audits, disclosures, and pre-election day compliance audits," she said.

Berardinetti, meanwhile, was outraged by the rhetoric at the meeting, which she watched on television.

"I think that Miller has reaffirmed the fact that what he stands for is underhanded tactics during the campaign," she said. "It's OK to do that as part of the electoral process. At the same time, he's going to be judge, jury and prosecution all at once. He's the one on the floor pontificating and deciding which candidates he is going to support and protect. I think he's a hypocrite saying he's standing for the integrity of the election, standing up for all candidates."

Berardinetti said that she had no help from any "machine" in the election in 2006.

"It's inaccurate," she said. "If anybody should be talking about that he should, because the NDP are infamous for sending out union members on campaigns."

Berardinetti registered last week to run against Heaps in Ward 35 in the 2010 election.