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Canadian politician

Judith A. Sgro

Sgro was introduced to politics when she was elected to North York City Council in 1987. In 1994 she was acclaimed as a Metro councillor for North York. In 1998 she became a Toronto city councillor in the newly amalgamated city where she served a term as vice chair of the Toronto Police Services Board.

In 1997 Sgro's first attempt at Federal politics came up short when she tried to get elected in the riding of York South—Weston. She lost to John Nunziata, who was running as an independent, by 4,431 votes. In 1999 she won a by election in York West to replace Sergio Marchi who had accepted an ambassadorial position to the World Trade Organization. She has since been re elected by substantial pluralities. In 2001, she was named chairperson of the Prime Minister's "Caucus Task Force on Urban Issues". In 2003 her group released an interim report recommending increased Federal support to recognize their economic and social value. The press dubbed the issue "Strippergate". On January 14, 2005, Sgro resigned from cabinet after further allegations that she had offered to intervene in the immigration hearing of Harjit Singh, a Brampton pizzeria owner, in exchange for free pizza for her campaign staff. The following day, the Toronto Star revealed that Singh had previously committed credit card fraud. On January 31, 2005, Sgro filed a lawsuit against Singh for $750,000 in damages. On May 10, 2005, the Federal ethics commissioner Bernard Shapiro cleared Sgro of all wrongdoing from the Strippergate debacle when it was found that Sgro didn't know that two staffers had put her in a position of conflict of interest. The ethics commissioner also concluded that Sgro had never met the woman or even knew that she had volunteered on her re election campaign. Shapiro said to Sgro, "It appears you acted appropriately." Also the same day, Singh retracted his allegations and apologized to Sgro. He said, "I now admit I did not have a meeting with Judy Sgro and at no time did she request any campaign assistance from me. Nor did she help me with my immigration problems." Sgro was the first member of Cabinet to resign from Paul Martin's government. There was some speculation in the media that fellow minister Joe Volpe helped to engineer her resignation given that they had a cool relationship. Asked about this controversy in 2013 by a reporter from Québecor Média, Sgro replied, "The issue was dealt with, an issue was pointed out I immediately dealt with the issue and I would ask the prime minister and his folks to do the same thing. Thank you very much."

Sgro served as the Opposition Critic for Industry for the Liberals. On November 1, 2010, the Liberals released a white paper providing recommendations for retirement income security followed by a Pension Income Bill of Rights. The paper was created by a working group co chaired by Sgro. On March 4, 2014, Sgro was re nominated by acclamation as the Liberal candidate for the renamed riding of Humber River—Black Creek for the next federal election. She subsequently won election to this seat.

Sgro currently serves as the chair of the Standing Committee on International Trade. She was re elected in the 2019 federal election.

She and her husband Sam Sgro are the parents of three children. Judy's daughter, Deanna Sgro, was a candidate for the Ontario Liberal Party during the 2018 Ontario general election, as well as the 2018 Toronto municipal election for Humber River Black Creek.