Why didn't Ottawa Council know about this developer's past?
As council debated a $300,000 donation from the Katasa Group, which wants to build at Bronson and Carling, the controversial history of its founder never came up.
Randall Denley, Ottawa Citizen
Published Jan 26, 2024 • Last updated 1 hour ago • 4 minute read
This week’s city council discussion about the appropriateness of accepting a $300,000 donation from a developer seems to have overlooked some significant information. Samir Chowieri, the generous developer, has a past criminal record and a controversial business history.
One wonders why the city legal and ethics officials who vetted the donation didn’t mention this.
Gatineau developer Chowieri and his three daughters run Katasa Group. The company’s website describes him as a “visionary founder” and he is listed on Quebec’s business registry as company president. But there’s more to his story.
Chowieri’s legal troubles date back to the 1980s and have been publicly reported in the news media. The details are readily available to any city councillor or staffer doing an internet search.
For instance, in 2020, Radio-Canada’s Enquête reported, “Chowieri was convicted of conspiracy to traffic drugs in 1981 and sentenced in the Hull courthouse to two years in prison.
“A year later, records show, Chowieri was sentenced to 18 months for conspiracy to commit fraud, for having acquired 12.5 tonnes of cheese without paying the supplier,” Enquête reported. “Chowieri received a pardon for his past crimes in 2014 from the Parole Board of Canada, a spokesperson for the businessman informed Radio-Canada in an email statement.”
Radio-Canada then reported that in 2002, “Mr. Chowieri was also found guilty of tax evasion for having passed off personal spending as business expenses for his company, CHO Brothers. He was fined $125,000.”
The Montreal Gazette, in 2020, reported a prior instance of generosity by Chowieri, in which the then-mayor of Aylmer pleaded guilty in 1998 to breach of trust for using a West Palm Beach condo owned by a notary who was friends of Chowieri. The mayor was sentenced to an “absolute discharge, apparently because the investigation failed to prove whether Chowieri benefited from the gift he offered to her,” the Gazette reported.
More recently, Samir Chowieri has been in the news because of the performance of a long-term care home Katasa owned. During the pandemic, 47 out of 134 residents died at Dorval’s Résidence Herron (which is now closed). A coroner’s investigation heard that “there was routinely a lack of washcloths, diapers, medical supplies and, at times, even the batteries that powered what little equipment the residence had.”
Quebec Premier François Legault said it was “unacceptable” that a person once convicted of serious crimes was allowed to operate long-term care homes in the province. Chowieri’s company paid $5.5 million to settle a class-action suit filed by victims of the relatives.
The Citizen requested an interview with Chowieri; as of publication of this article, neither he nor the company has responded. However, Capital Ward Coun. Shawn Menard did.
As part of the discussions leading up to the city’s approval of an apartment tower at Carling and Bronson Avenues, Menard says he proposed that Katasa Group make a “goodwill” donation to help smooth over neighbourhood controversies created by the development proposal.
The donation Katasa agreed to was meant to provide $100,000 for traffic-calming and $200,000 for social housing, all in Menard’s ward. This week, councillors decided that staff should determine where the money goes, and said it can be spent in any ward.
Menard said he was vaguely aware of past legal issues with Chowieri, but he was dealing with Chowieri’s daughter, not Samir Chowieri. Menard also said that a developer’s past shouldn’t factor into a development application.
Perhaps not, but the issue here is the donation, not the application.
It raises a number of questions. First, why is a city councillor soliciting a six-figure donation from a developer? Doing it before the relevant application was passed could easily leave people with the idea that the development approval wheels need to be greased. This concern got lots of airtime during council debate — with Menard noting that both the city’s legal department and ethics staff had OK’d it.
Second, why did the legal and ethics staff do that? Why was Chowieri’s track record not highlighted in the vetting and pointed out to council?
In response to my request for comment, city solicitor David White sent this baffling email: “City staff have reviewed the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to ensure the terms of the agreement do not contravene the City’s policies and protocols. Staff’s role is to ensure the city’s interests are safeguarded and that the MOU does not contravene any applicable laws and regulations. City staff also worked to ensure complete transparency with respect to the MOU by way of its presentation to committee and council.”
Third, and most important, will the city still keep the donation money, knowing more about the source? Surely Ottawa can pay for traffic calming and social housing without having to take money from a businessman with such a chequered past.
Randall Denley is an Ottawa political commentator and author. Contact him at [email protected]
https://ottawacitizen.com/opinion/denley-why-didnt-ottawa-council-know-about-this-developers-past
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