Alfonso Gagliano (; 25 January 1942 – 12 December 2020) was a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

accountant and politician.

Early life and family

Born in

Siculiana Siculiana is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Agrigento, Sicily, southern Italy, west of the provincial capital Agrigento. Geography Siculiana’s long coast line is largely unspoiled; a protected Regional Nature Reserve has been e ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

, Gagliano immigrated to

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple ...

in 1958. His political career began in 1977 when he ran for a seat on the then Jérôme-LeRoyer school board, which no longer exists and used to cover the East End of Montreal Island. In 1965, Gagliano married Ersilia Gidaro and with her bore three children; Vincenzo, Maria and Immacolata.

Political career

In the 1984 federal election, he ran for

Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. Th ...

for

Saint-Léonard—Anjou Saint-Léonard—Anjou (formerly known as Saint-Léonard) was a federal electoral district in Quebec, Canada that was represented in the House of Commons of Canada from 1979 to 1988. This riding was created in 1976 as "Saint-Léonard" riding f ...

narrowly defeating the Progressive Conservative candidate. It was one of the few ridings that the Liberals retained, as they were swept out of power in a massive Conservative landslide. He was re-elected in the 1988 and 1993 elections representing Saint-Léonard, and in the 1997 and 2000 elections representing Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel. From 1996 to 2002, he served in various cabinet posts including Minister of Labour, Deputy House leader and the Minister responsible for Communications Canada,

Canada Post Canada Post Corporation (french: Société canadienne des postes), trading as Canada Post (french: Postes Canada), is a Crown corporation that functions as the primary postal operator in Canada. Originally known as Royal Mail Canada (the opera ...

, the

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) (french: Société canadienne d'hypothèques et de logement) (SCHL) is Canada's national housing agency, and state-owned mortgage insurer. It was originally established after World War II, to help re ...

, the

Royal Canadian Mint }) is the mint of Canada and a Crown corporation, operating under the ''Royal Canadian Mint Act''. The shares of the Mint are held in trust for the Crown in right of Canada. The Mint produces all of Canada's circulation coins, and manufacture ...

and Canada Lands Company Ltd. His most controversial positions were as

Minister of Public Works and Government Services The minister of public services and procurement (french: ministre des services publics et de l’approvisionnement) is the minister of the Crown in the Canadian Cabinet who is responsible for overseeing the Government of Canada's "common service ...

and as political minister for

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

. Following his career as a cabinet minister, Gagliano was appointed as the Canadian ambassador to

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark , establish ...

after having been rejected by the Vatican for a similar posting. However, he was dismissed from this position on February 10, 2004 by

Governor General Governor-general (plural ''governors-general''), or governor general (plural ''governors general''), is the title of an office-holder. In the context of governors-general and former British colonies, governors-general are appointed as viceroy ...

Adrienne Clarkson Adrienne Louise Clarkson (; ; born February 10, 1939) is a Hong Kong-born Canadian journalist who served from 1999 to 2005 as Governor General of Canada, the 26th since Canadian Confederation. Clarkson arrived in Canada with her family in 19 ...

, on the advice of Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham, amidst widespread speculation that during his time as public works minister he was actively involved in the

sponsorship scandal The sponsorship scandal, AdScam or Sponsorgate, was a scandal in Canada that came as a result of a federal government " sponsorship program" in the province of Quebec involving the Liberal Party of Canada, which was in power from 1993 to 2006. ...

Aftermath

On May 27, 2004, Gagliano filed a more than $4.5-million lawsuit against Prime Minister

Paul Martin Paul Edgar Philippe Martin (born August 28, 1938), also known as Paul Martin Jr., is a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the 21st prime minister of Canada and the leader of the Liberal Party of Canada from 2003 to 2006. The son o ...

and the government. The suit accused the defendants of deliberately attacking Gagliano's reputation and alleged that he was illegally and unjustly fired. He sought compensation for

wrongful dismissal In law, wrongful dismissal, also called wrongful termination or wrongful discharge, is a situation in which an employee's contract of employment has been terminated by the employer, where the termination breaches one or more terms of the contra ...

, damage to his reputation and lost income. The lawsuit was eventually dismissed. Justice

John Gomery John Howard Gomery (August 9, 1932 – May 18, 2021) was a Canadian jurist from Quebec. He was a Justice of the Quebec Superior Court from 1982–2007, and appointed Commissioner for the Royal Commission investigating the Sponsorship scandal in ...

's initial report on the sponsorship scandal places much of the blame on Gagliano, making him the highest ranking Liberal to be charged with deliberate dishonesty, rather than negligence. Following the initial report, Paul Martin expelled him from the Liberal Party for life. On November 17, 2004, an article in the '' New York Daily News'' alleged that Gagliano was associated with the

Bonanno crime family The Bonanno crime family (pronounced ) is an Italian-American Mafia crime family and one of the " Five Families" that dominate organized crime activities in New York City, and in the United States, as part of the criminal phenomenon known as ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. In the article, former capo

Frank Lino Frank "Curly" Lino (born October 30, 1938) is a Sicilian-American former caporegime in the Bonanno crime family who later became an informant. Biography Early life Lino was born in a house on West Eight Street in Gravesend, Brooklyn, New York ...

, turned

informant An informant (also called an informer or, as a slang term, a “snitch”) is a person who provides privileged information about a person or organization to an agency. The term is usually used within the law-enforcement world, where informant ...

for the U.S.

Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, ...

, is quoted as saying Gagliano was first introduced to him during a meeting with other mob members in

in the early 1990s. Lino also stated that Gagliano was a

made man In the American and Sicilian Mafia, a made man is a fully initiated member of the Mafia. To become "made", an associate first must be Italian or of Italian descent and sponsored by another made man. An inductee will be required to take the oa ...

of the Mafia. It was not the first time Gagliano's name has been linked to organized crime. In April 1994, '' La Presse'' reported that Gagliano was the accountant for Agostino Cuntrera, cousin of cocaine baron

Alfonso Caruana Alfonso Caruana (; born January 1, 1946) is an Italian-Canadian crime boss and member of the Sicilian Mafia and was the head of the Sicilian Cuntrera-Caruana Mafia clan's branch in Canada. In 1997, he was sentenced ''in absentia'' in Italy, on ...

, also a native of

, who was convicted in the gangland slaying of

Paolo Violi Paolo Violi (; 6 February 1931 – 22 January 1978) was an Italian-Canadian mobster and ''capodecina'' in the Cotroni crime family of Montreal. Violi was born in Sinopoli, Calabria, Italy, in 1931; his father Domenico was the boss of the Violi cl ...

in Montreal in 1978. Gagliano denied any links to the Mafia. Since August 2008, Gagliano resided with his family on a

vineyard A vineyard (; also ) is a plantation of grape-bearing vines, grown mainly for winemaking, but also raisins, table grapes and non-alcoholic grape juice. The science, practice and study of vineyard production is known as viticulture. Vineya ...

Dunham, Quebec Dunham is a city in the Canadian province of Quebec, located in Brome-Missisquoi Regional County Municipality. The population as of the Canada 2011 Census was 3,471. Dunham is located approximately north of the United States border. It is bord ...

he purchased. In September 2006, he argued that Liberal leadership candidate

Joe Volpe Giuseppe "Joe" Volpe (born September 21, 1947) is a Canadian politician. He represented the Ontario riding of Eglinton-Lawrence as a member of the Liberal Party in the House of Commons of Canada from 1988 until 2011, when he lost his seat t ...

was the victim of the same kind of anti-Italian sentiment that ended his own political career.

Electoral record (partial)

References

The Rothschilds of the Mafia on Aruba
by Tom Blickman, Transnational Organized Crime, Vol. 3, No. 2, Summer 1997

The Hill Times, November 22, 2004

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gagliano, Alfonso 1942 births 2020 deaths People from Saint-Leonard, Quebec Politicians from Montreal Italian emigrants to Canada Liberal Party of Canada MPs Members of the 26th Canadian Ministry Members of the House of Commons of Canada from Quebec Members of the King's Privy Council for Canada Canadian accountants Ambassadors of Canada to Denmark Corruption in Canada Ministers of Labour of Canada Bonanno crime family People from Siculiana