Former CBC radio host Jian Ghomeshi’s first court appearance on criminal charges put his lawyer, Marie Henein, in the media spotlight this week.
Henein has developed a reputation as one of Toronto’s most fearsome criminal defence lawyers, in part from her successful defence of former Ontario attorney general Michael Bryant, who was charged with criminal negligence causing death after running over a bike courier in 2009. The charges were later dropped.
Henein will soon be in court on another case that will resonate on Parliament Hill.
She is defending one of the co-accused on Elections Act charges related to the 2008 campaign of now-former Conservative MP Dean Del Mastro.
Del Mastro, of course, was found guilty of campaign overspending last month and has resigned his seat at the MP for Peterborough.
But his cousin, David Del Mastro, is still charged with trying to dodge campaign contribution limits by funnelling $22,000 to the Del Mastro campaign through employees of his Mississauga electrical contracting company, Deltro Electric.
Also charged in the case is Deltro’s comptroller, Tori-Lynn Manchulenko, who has hired Henein to represent her.
Manchulenko, her son, Jared, and sister Valerie were listed among those who made the maximum $1,000 donations to Del Mastro’s re-election effort. (Only Tori-Lynn Manchulenko has been charged.)
Former employees of the company have alleged that David Del Mastro reimbursed them for the donations, with a $50 bonus, and allowed them to claim the tax credits for their political contributions.
Both Del Mastros have denied the allegations. Manchulenko and Heinen have both declined comment.
Henein is expected in court, briefly, on Dec. 5, when the David Del Mastro-Manchulenko case is up next, likely to just set another court date.
David Del Mastro has retained Toronto criminal lawyer Scott Fenton. The case will be prosecuted by Crowns Brian Puddington and Lisa Csele.
Henein’s law partner, Scott Hutchinson, will be familiar to Ottawa readers: He was brought in by the Ontario Crown’s office to prosecute then-Ottawa mayor Larry O’Brien on charges of purported influence peddling. O’Brien was eventually acquitted.
gmcgregor@ottawacitizen.com
Twitter.com/glen_mcgregor
