MLA denies knowing man charged in GST case

MLA denies knowing man charged in GST case
By Dan Hilborn, Burnaby Now assistant editor
Published Feb. 16, 2003

Burnaby-Edmonds MLA Patty Sahota says she has no idea how a man now charged in one of the largest GST refunds scams in Canadian history came to be her chief fundraiser in the last provincial election.
According to news reports published by canada.com, Abbotsford businessman Sikander Singh Bath was one of two men charged this week with defrauding the federal government of an estimated $22 million by claiming tax rebates on nonexistent sales of lumber and other wood products.
Bath was listed as the chief fundraiser for Sahota's provincial election campaign and, according to documents filed at Elections B.C., he was also Sahota's largest single contributor, giving $7,300 of services in kind to the campaign coffers himself.
On Thursday, Sahota said she never knew Bath before the campaign and has had chilly relations with him ever since.
"I can't comment on what he's been charged with, for obvious reasons, but in terms of the people who volunteer - you take people at face value," Sahota said. "You know from being around politics that that's how it works."
When asked of she knew him prior to the campaign, Sahota responded: "No, I met him in 2000."
When asked if they knew each other from the forest industry, where Sahota worked as a consultant prior to her election as an MLA, she replied: "No, no, no, no."
Last spring, relations between Bath and the Sahota campaign turned sour when Jas Bath, the wife of Sikander, first contacted the Burnaby NOW to complain that the Burnaby Edmonds constituency was not issuing tax receipts for donations made at a Feb. 25, 2002 fundraising dinner, and that as much as $5,000 in donations were unaccounted for.
Similar allegations against Sahota were repeated last fall by Sikander Bath.
Meanwhile, Sahota said she was not worried about the having her name associated with the criminal allegations against Bath.
"I haven't done anything wrong, and the charges Mr. Bath faces are before the courts and he will have his day in court," she said.