[thistleclub]

An excerpt from the article in question.

Questions arise over youth ballet group’s tax filings
(YourHamiltonBiz.com, Saira Peesker, March 23 2013)

Two former board members of the non-profit that owns the Tivoli Theatre say they’re surprised to hear the organization is still using their names of tax returns, years after they resigned their positions.

Janet DiIanni and Scouter Ward both say they haven’t been involved with the Canadian Ballet Youth Ensemble, also known as the Hamilton ballet Youth Ensemble, for years….

The ballet’s Canadian Revenue Agency (CRA) filings, which are publicly available due to its charitable status, list DiIanni as board member each year from 2005 [to] 2012, with the exception of 2008. She says she resigned around 2007, and was only a part of the group’s leadership in a very loose sense….

She says Ward resigned shortly after she did. When reached at his Brantford home on Wednesday, he said he left a while back but he was hazy on the date.

“Unfortunately we got caught up in other activities and I had to resign a couple of years ago,” he said. “I think it was around 2010, but you lose track of time.”

He remains listed on the organization’s most recent return, in 2012, which shows five people holding 12 positions. YourHamiltonBiz tried to contact the other three — longtime CEO Belma Diamante, Maggie Blaschuk and Lucy Stawiarski — with no success….

Aside from Diamante, Blaschuk and Stawiarski, the group’s board appears to have been in flux for some time. The directors listed on its website are different from those on its tax return, an dboth are different than who is actually on the board, according to current member Gary Santucci. He says the current composition includes himself, Diamante, Blaschuk and Stawiarski, as well as lawyer Gina Gentili and audio-visual entrepreneur Bill Geekie. Both Gentili and Geekie confirmed this when contacted by YourHamiltonBiz.com.

Geekie said he only joined the board recently and is not particularly involved.

“I told them I would help,” said Geekie, whose interest lies more in saving the Tivoli than it does in ballet. “As to what my involvement is, I don’t really know.”