Judy Sgro

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Template:Short description Template:Use Canadian English Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox officeholder Judith A. Sgro<ref name="contrib"/> Template:Post-nominals (born December 16, 1944) is a Canadian politician. A member of the Liberal Party of Canada, she currently represents the electoral district of Humber River—Black Creek in the House of Commons of Canada. Sgro currently serves as the chair of the Standing Committee on International Trade and as a chair on the Canadian House of Commons Liaison Committee since 2016.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Politics

Councillor

Sgro was introduced to politics when she was elected to North York City Council in 1987. In 1994, she was acclaimed as a Metro councillor for North York.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 1998 she became a Toronto city councillor in the newly amalgamated city where she served a term as vice-chair of the Toronto Police Services Board.<ref name=judy1>Template:Cite news</ref>

Federal politics

Government (1999–2006)

In 1997, Sgro's first attempt at federal politics came up short when she tried to get elected in the riding of York South—Weston. She lost to John Nunziata, who was running as an independent, by 4,431 votes. In 1999 she won a by-election in York West to replace Sergio Marchi who had accepted an ambassadorial position to the World Trade Organization. She has since been re-elected by substantial pluralities.

In 2001, she was named chairperson of the prime minister's "Caucus Task Force on Urban Issues". In 2003, her group released an interim report recommending increased federal support to recognize their economic and social value.<ref name=judy1/> From December 12, 2003 to January 13, 2005, Sgro served as minister of Citizenship and Immigration in the government of Paul Martin.

Political favouritism issues

Template:Main 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.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The press dubbed the issue Strippergate.

On January 14, 2005, Sgro resigned from cabinet after further allegations that she had offered to intervene in the immigration hearing of Harjit Singh, a Brampton pizzeria owner, in exchange for free pizza for her campaign staff.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The following day, the Toronto Star revealed that Singh had previously committed credit card fraud.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

On January 31, 2005, Sgro filed a lawsuit against Singh for $750,000 in damages.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> On May 10, 2005, the federal ethics commissioner Bernard Shapiro cleared Sgro of all wrongdoing 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. Shapiro said to Sgro, "It appears you acted appropriately." Also the same day, Singh retracted his allegations and apologized to Sgro. He said, "I now admit I did not have a meeting with Judy Sgro and at no time did she request any campaign assistance from me. Nor did she help me with my immigration problems."<ref name=judy2>Template:Cite news</ref>

Sgro was the first member of Cabinet to resign from Paul Martin's government. There was some speculation in the media that fellow minister Joe Volpe helped to engineer her resignation given that they had a cool relationship.<ref name=judy2/>

Expenses issue

In June 2010, it was revealed that Sgro had been claiming expenses for rent on an Ottawa luxury highrise condominium owned by her adult children, violating rules for such expenses set by the Board of Internal Economy of the House of Commons. Sgro had paid $138,000 to purchase the condo in 2001, and then transferred the title on the property to her children in 2006; she then paid her children $22,000 a year in rent to live in the apartment, violating rules forbidding MPs from claiming expenses on goods or services contracted from family members.<ref name=McGregor2010>Template:Cite news</ref>

Asked about this controversy in 2013 by a reporter from Québecor Média, Sgro replied, "The issue was dealt with, an issue was pointed out... I immediately dealt with the issue and I would ask the prime minister and his folks to do the same thing. Thank you very much."<ref name=Kirkup2013>Template:Cite news</ref>

Opposition (2006–2015)

Sgro served as the opposition critic for Industry for the Liberals.<ref name="LoPBio">Template:Cite web</ref> On November 1, 2010, the Liberals released a white paper providing recommendations for retirement income security followed by a Pension Income Bill of Rights. The paper was created by a working group co-chaired by Sgro.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Government (2015–present)

Sgro currently serves as the chair of the Standing Committee on International Trade.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Personal life

She and her husband Sam Sgro are the parents of three children. Her daughter, Deanna Sgro, was a candidate for the Ontario Liberal Party during the 2018 Ontario general election, as well as the 2018 Toronto municipal election for Humber River-Black Creek.

Election results

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1997 Toronto City Council Election: North York Humber
Council Candidate
2 to be elected 		Vote %
Judy Sgro 14,334 33.83
George Mammoliti 10,226 24.13
Gina Serverino 6,875 16.22
Tony Marzilli 5,205 12.28
Bob Churchhill 5,012 11.83
Michael Marson 722 1.70

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1994 Metro Toronto Council Election: North York Humber
Council Candidate Vote %
Judy Sgro Acclaimed
1991 North York City Council Election: Ward 2
Council Candidate Vote %
Judy Sgro Acclaimed
1988 North York City Council Election: Ward 2
Council Candidate Vote %
Judy Sgro 6,882 67.43
Gerry Iuliano 2,398 23.50
Luigi Cavaleri 926 9.07

References

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Template:CA-Ministers of Citizenship and Immigration Template:Current Members of the Canadian House of Commons Template:Martin Ministry Template:Authority control

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