McCallion denies knowing vote would help son

Mississauga Mayor Hazel McCallion, battling conflict of interest charges, testified Thursday she didn't know a 2007 vote that she took part in would help her son's company.

Mississauga resident Elias Hazineh brought the case forward alleging McCallion voted in favour of a bylaw that would have saved her son's company $11 million in development fees.

McCallion, who was met by a media horde as she arrived, testified she didn't know how involved her son Peter was in the project even as she encouraged the landowner to sell.

She also said she tried to remain detached from the development.

The mayor said "that once it came to city hall in any shape or form, that I wanted not to be involved."

Peter McCallion had been pushing for a hotel complex and convention centre in downtown Mississauga.  On Thursday, Hazel McCallion said she felt misled by her son when she later learned he did have an ownership stake in the group.

McCallion testified it had long been a mission of staff to find such a development to create a downtown worthy of Canada's 6th largest city.

Hazineh said Thursday he was not expecting much from the mayor's testimony

"She is going to try to use every kind of excuse, that she will probably say she doesn't remember, that this was an application of a general nature," Hazineh said.

McCallion testified when the issue came to regional council she didn't declare a conflict because she thought the fees applied to everybody.

After facing questioning from her lawyer on Thursday, McCallion was to return to the stand Friday to face questioning from the other side in the legal proceedings.