Judy Sgro
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| Incumbent | |
|---|---|
| Riding | York West |
| In office since | By-election: November 15, 1999 |
| Preceded by | Sergio Marchi |
| Born | December 16, 1944 Moncton, New Brunswick |
| Residence | Toronto |
| Political party | |
| Profession(s) | Municipal councillor |
| Spouse | Sam Sgro |
Judy Sgro, PC , MP (born December 16, 1944, Moncton, New Brunswick) is a Canadian politician, a member of the Liberal Party of Canada.
Sgro, the Member of Parliament for the riding of York West, was first elected in a 1999 by-election and was re-elected in the general elections of 2000 and 2004. She was made Minister of Citizenship and Immigration on December 12, 2003.
A former Toronto City Councillor, she was named chairperson of the Prime Minister's "Caucus Task Force on Urban Issues" shortly after her first election. She was a Toronto City/Metro Councillor from 1994 to 1999 and a City Councillor in North York, Ontario from 1987 to 1994. In the 1997 federal elction, she challenged Independent incumbent John Nunziata unsuccessfully, losing by 4,431 votes.
In November, 2004 controversy began to surround Sgro as questions arose surrounding her activities during the June election earlier that year. Several members of her ministerial staff had filed expense claims to travel to and work in her riding throughout the campaign ending on election day. More serious claims were also raised when Opposition Conservative MPs claimed she had given a special immigration permit to a campaign supporter — specifically Alina Balaican, a Romanian who had initially been admitted to the country to work as a stripper. New Democratic Party MP Pat Martin also accused Sgro's aides of making threats to deny ministerial permits to his constituents if he criticized her on the stripper controversy[1]. The press dubbed the issue "Strippergate".
On January 14, 2005, Sgro resigned [2] from cabinet after further allegations that she had offered to intervene in the immigration hearing of Harjit Singh, a Brampton man, in exchange for pizza. The following day, the Toronto Star revealed that Singh had previously committed credit card fraud. [3]
She was the first member of Cabinet to resign from Paul Martin's government. Some in the media have speculated that fellow minister Joe Volpe helped to engineer her resignation, given that both had a cool relationship (National Post, May 11, 2005). Sgro has suggested that Volpe aspired to her job, but he has denied this, noting that he already had a prominent cabinet portfolio (Toronto Star, April 29, 2005). One of Volpe's first acts was to close the loophole which had previously allowed exotic dancers to enter the country easily. [4]
On January 31, 2005, Sgro filed a lawsuit against Singh for $750,000 in damages. On May 10, 2005, Sgro was cleared of all wrong-doing from the Strippergate debacle when it was found that Sgro didn't know that two staffers had put her in a position of conflict of interest. The ethics commissioner also concluded that Sgro had never met the woman or even knew that she had volunteered on her re-election campaign. Also the same day, Singh retracted his allegations.
[edit] External links
| 27th Ministry - Government of Paul Martin | ||
| Cabinet Post | ||
|---|---|---|
| Predecessor | Office | Successor |
| Denis Coderre | Minister of Citizenship and Immigration (2003–2005) |
Joe Volpe |
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| NAME | Sgro, Judy |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | Canadian politician |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 16, 1944 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada |
| DATE OF DEATH | living |
| PLACE OF DEATH | |
