Hazel McCallion’s lawyer called the citizen accusing her a “straw man” as the full hearing into her conflict of interest case began Monday.

In Brampton Superior Court, the Mississauga mayor’s lawyer, Freya Kristjanson, questioned Elias Hazineh’s credibility and when it was that he actually became aware of the alleged conflict.

She wondered aloud how the Mississauga resident is financing the case, suggesting that McCallion’s longtime political rival, Carolyn Parrish, must have had discussions with Hazineh about the mayor’s alleged conflict of interest long before he brought the complaint forward.

Ontario’s conflict laws state a citizen must file a case within six weeks of learning about an alleged conflict.

Hazineh alleges that McCallion was in a conflict in 2007 when, at meetings of Peel Region, she introduced amendments and voted on development charge issues that could have saved her son’s company $11 million.

“He is a straw man,” Kristjanson said of Hazineh, moments after the hearing began.

Hazineh’s lawyer, Tom Richardson, dismissed Kristjanson’s argument that his client must have known about the alleged conflict long before bringing the case.

Kristjanson said a 2010 newspaper article that mentioned the alleged conflict at Peel Region council was read by Hazineh according to his pre-hearing testimony, and that he must have discussed it with Parrish, with whom he is said to be close.

Richardson said that, even if he read it, Hazineh did not make the connection to a possible conflict on McCallion’s part.

His case states that he learned of the alleged conflict after reading a 2011 newspaper article following the Mississauga Judicial Inquiry, which probed McCallion’s role in promoting a failed hotel-convention centre project envisioned by her son’s company.

The inquiry found that though McCallion broke common-law principles, she was not guilty of breaking the letter of provincial law because she declared a conflict when the project was dealt with at city council.

Richardson pointed out Monday that McCallion did not declare a conflict at the Peel Region council meetings, and not only voted on issues that could have helped her son’s company, but moved amendments that were passed.

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He also pointed out that in advocating for lower development fees for projects already in the pipeline, McCallion contradicted her oft-repeated mantra that “growth must pay for growth.”

The mayor will testify Thursday and Friday.

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