Critics charge Tory-dominated financial transparency committee is a `kangaroo court´ after former Ontario controller muzzled
(The Star Food)

The Progressive Conservatives’ decision to muzzle the former provincial controller who quit in protest of the new government’s inflated $15-billion deficit is troubling, charges a top New Democrat.MPP Catherine Fife said Friday the reasons for Cindy Veinot’s stunning resignation — revealed by the Star earlier this week — underscore the need for her to be allowed to testify at the legislative committee on financial transparency.But that committee, dominated by Conservative MPPs, has blocked NDP attempts at having Veinot, who stepped down on Sept. 27, appear.“They said ‘we already know what she’s going to say.’ They made assumptions about her testimony. By not calling the provincial controller to testify calls into question the entire credibility of the committee,� Fife said Friday.She emphasized the Tories struck the panel for “very partisan reasons.� “When you refuse to call the internal auditor when you’re investigating financial transparency, it really does leave people just shaking their heads,� said the Waterloo MPP.“It certainly doesn’t instill confidence in this finance minister’s numbers that he has put out there in order to set the tone for future cuts,� she said of Finance Minister Vic Fedeli.Liberal MPP Mitzie Hunter (Scarborough-Guildwood) dismissed the committee as “a kangaroo court.�“It’s one-sided and it’s not really designed to get at the truth at all,� said Hunter.“Look at the very strong signal that Cindy Veinot sent (when) she refused to sign the public accounts. I looked at the public accounts for the last 20 years and there was always a controller that signed off,� she said.“That’s the full-time person that oversees the books of Ontario.�Veinot, a civil servant with 25 years of previous experience at Deloitte, left as the government’s chief accountant because ...