The Now on Grewal's campaign finance

Gurmant Grewal in new pickle

Brooke Larsen

Now Contributor

Trouble has reared its ugly head again for Gurmant Grewal.

Two Vancouver men say they made donations to Grewal's 2004 re-election campaign, but didn't receive receipts.

Barj Dhahan said he made a $600 donation to Grewal's campaign in December 2003, and has since phoned Grewal's office numerous times asking for a receipt.

"I gave him the donation but I didn't get the receipt. I don't think that's acceptable," he said.

Sarup Mann, who also made a donation to Grewal, said he called the MP several times asking for a receipt but got nowhere.

Mann said that in 2003 he handed Grewal a cheque for $600 for his campaign, and in July 2004 he gave Grewal another $1,800 cheque for Nina Grewal's campaign.

But the Newton-North Delta MP says both men asked if they could make their cheques out to Grewal personally, not to his campaign, so that their names would not appear on lists of campaign supporters, which are public information.

"They didn't want to be associated with my campaign or the party, so they made the cheque out to me, Gurmant Grewal," he said.

Grewal says he took the cheques, endorsed them, and used them to pay for a party at the Grand Taj, a Surrey banquet hall.

"The cheques were used for a Gurmant Grewal appreciation party - for food, the banquet hall, the entertainment."

Grewal said he wasn't required to issue receipts to Mann and Dhahan because their donations were made before the official start of the campaign period.

According to Elections Canada' s website, candidates are required to issue receipts to all donors, but only after their candidacy is confirmed.

But Grewal may have violated another campaign rule.

In a section titled "Important reminders for candidates and their official agents," the Elections Canada website says all candidates should "ensure that all money is first deposited into the campaign bank account."

Grewal said the cheque made out to Nina Grewal's campaign was deposited in the campaign account, but that the receipt got lost.

Neither Dhahan's nor Mann's names showed up on the Elections Canada lists of contributors to Nina and Gurmant Grewal's campaigns.

Grewal is also being investigated by police and a parliamentary ethics commissioner for taping his conversations with the federal finance minister and an aid to Prime Minister Paul Martin.

posted on 07/13/2005