A former Calgary city councillor accused of defrauding the city on his expense claims wants 27 witnesses — including the mayor of Halifax, Ontario’s Liberal leader and other elected officials from across the country — to fly to Alberta to testify in person even though their evidence is expected to take a matter of minutes.
Joe Magliocca, 59, is charged with fraud and breach of trust by a public officer stemming from expense claims submitted to the city for travel between Oct. 23, 2017, the beginning of his second term, and Dec. 31, 2019.
Magliocca’s trial got underway Monday.
At the outset, prosecutor Aaron Rankin told Justice Gord Wong that he notified defence lawyer Aryan Sadat in March of his plan to have most of his witnesses testify remotely via video feed.
But Rankin said he learned through Sadat on Sunday afternoon that Magliocca “will not consent to remote testimony for any witness.”
Witnesses named in expense claims
The defence position caused the trial move into the Crown’s application to have witnesses testify remotely.
Rankin said most of his witnesses — 27 in total — are current or former elected officials who attended municipal government conferences outside of Calgary.
The witnesses are united by the fact they each appear in Magliocca’s expense claims as having been “hosted” by him (the requirement for reimbursement) with food and alcohol during his travels.
Rankin explained that each was asked by police: “Were you the guest of Mr. Magliocca in the capacity that the records appear to reflect?”
“Obviously, if the Crown is calling them, the expectation is the answer will be ‘no.'”
Testimony expected to be brief
In support of his application to have the witnesses testify via video link, Rankin had the lead investigator review their statements to police, painting a picture of the anticipated evidence as “very short.”
None were longer than three pages, and Const. David Mitchell estimated most of the interviews were five minutes or less in duration.
“Their evidence is going to be very short,” acknowledged Justice Wong.
“You’ll ask whether or not they were at a particular function … they’ll give an answer.”
The defence lawyer said he wanted each witness to explain “why they don’t want to be here in person.”
Sadat said he needed time to review the Crown’s application and would reserve his position until Friday.
Business card exchange
In the meantime, Rankin delivered an opening statement outlining the gist of the Crown’s case.
He says that between 2017 and 2019, Magliocca attended several meetings as part of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) conferences as the City of Calgary’s representative. He also attended the Carnaval de Québec.
City policy requires councillors to submit the names of people they’ve hosted in order to be reimbursed.
The investigation determined that many of the people Magliocca named on his expenses had never had a meal or drink with him, said Rankin.
The prosecutor said he expects the evidence to show that some of those named in the expenses had met Magliocca and exchanged business cards while others had never met him.
Politicians across Canada named
Included in the list of Crown witnesses are Halifax Mayor Mike Savage, Ontario Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie, Quebec cabinet minister Jonatan Julien, former Edmonton Mayor Don Iveson as well as city councillors from PEI, Toronto, Ottawa, Quebec City and Petite Riviere, Que.
One allegation relates to a FCM 2018 trade show. Magliocca is accused of checking out of one hotel following the conference and checking into a “new more expensive hotel for two nights,” according to Rankin.
On his expense claim, Rankin said Magliocca detailed that the stay was for “FCM director debriefing” when, in fact, there was no debriefing.
City of Calgary staff are expected to testify about policies surrounding expense claims and city-issued credit card reimbursement rules.
Partial repayment
Magliocca was charged on Oct. 8, 2021, 10 days before he lost his bid for a third term as Ward 2 councillor in Calgary’s civic election.
An audit and subsequent police investigation were triggered after reporting in 2020 by the Calgary Herald showed he’d expensed about double what other councillors claimed for their trips to the FCM conference in Quebec City.
The report found Magliocca improperly claimed $5,657 in expenses and raised questions about another $10,000.
Magliocca has repaid some of that money.
Although the PricewaterhouseCoopers audit results were forwarded to police, Const. Mitchell testified that RCMP “made a choice” not to use evidence from the audit and to instead “start fresh” by obtaining witness statements and documents from the city.