Former Liberal cabinet minister Joe Fontana accused of using taxpayer money to pay for son’s wedding

Former Liberal MP and current London Ontario mayor Joe Fontana is being accused of using federal tax dollars to pay for his son's wedding reception in 2005.

The London Free Press has obtained a Public Works Canada cheque stub from seven years ago — in the amount of $1,700 — which matches the invoice number on a contract signed for the event at the London Marconi Club.

Moreover, the former manager of the reception hall says he recalls that the remaining balance of over $18,000 was also paid by a federal government cheque.

"I put all the documents together and made copies," Joe DiPietro told the London Free Press.

"When I left [the club] in 2009, they might have been stored in my files. I had everything because I said one of these days this will be coming back to haunt him."

Another unnamed source told the Free Press that Fontana processed the cheques through his MP office and not through his ministerial 'account.'

While Fontana didn't respond to the newspaper's request for an interview, he did speak to CTV News London on Thursday.

"The only thing I can say is that parents and kids are responsible for paying for their weddings and I know of no documentation, that I know of, that I've seen. No one's ever talked to me about what you've just asked," he said.

"I can only tell you that in 18 years in Parliament, I think I've had a stellar reputation in terms of my budget and my administration with regards to taxpayers' dollars."

A spokesperson for the Speaker of the House told the Free Press that the matter has been "taken up" with the "proper authorities."

While none of the allegations have been proven, if they're true, this has to be one of the worst examples of a brazen misuse of public monies by a politician in recent memory.

In 1989, the RCMP alleged that Senator Hazen Argue used taxpayer money to help his wife obtain a Liberal party nomination in an Ontario riding. The charges were dropped because of Argue's health.

More recently, in 2011, former senator Raymond Lavigne was convicted of fraud and sentenced to six months in jail, in part, for using his Senate office staff to cut down about 60 trees on his personal property.

Certainly, we all hear the stories about Senators flying across the country — at our expense — to attend party fundraising dinners or about MPs extending their perks to their families.

But taxpayers paying for a wedding is just too much.

Say it ain't so, Joe, say it ain't so.