 The Honourable Judy Sgro Judy Sgro (born December 16, 1944, Moncton, New Brunswick) is a Canadian politician.
Sgro, the Member of Parliament for the riding of York West, was first elected in a 1999 by-election and was re-elected in the general elections of 2000 and 2004. She was made Minister of Citizenship and Immigration on December 12, 2003.
A former Toronto City Councillor, she was named chairperson of the Prime Minister's "Caucus Task Force on Urban Issues" shortly after her first election.
In November, 2004 controversy began to surround Sgro as questions arose surrounding her activities during the June election earlier that year. Several members of her ministerial staff had filed expense claims to travel to and work in her riding throughout the campaign ending on election day. More serious claims were also raised when Opposition Conservative MPs claimed she had given a special immigration permit to a campaign supporter specifically a Romanian who had initially been admitted to the country to work as a stripper. The press dubbed the issue "Strippergate".
On January 14, 2005, Sgro resigned[1] (http://sympaticomsn.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1105686456318_27?hub=topstories) from cabinet after further allegations that she had offered to intervene in the immigration hearing of Harjit Singh, a Brampton man, in exchange for pizza. The following day, the Toronto Star revealed that Singh had previously committed credit card fraud [2] (http://sympaticomsn.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1105799384658_3?hub=topstories).
She was the first minister to resign from Paul Martin's government.
On January 31, 2005, Sgro filed a lawsuit against Singh for $750,000 in damages.
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