Bradylama
So Old I'm Losing Radiation Signs
Liberals call in RCMP
Mounties to probe whether party members involved in sponsorship fraud
Anne Dawson
CanWest News Service
April 5, 2005
OTTAWA - Prime Minister Paul Martin painted the federal Liberal party as a victim in the $250-million sponsorship scandal yesterday as party officials asked the RCMP to investigate whether any of its own members participated in fraudulent activities involving the program.
The possibility of a snap spring election continued to dominate Parliament Hill and pressure is mounting for Conservative leader Stephen Harper from some of his own MPs to defeat the government now and fight a spring election campaign on a platform that brands the Liberals as corrupt.
All three opposition parties were reassessing their election strategies on the heels of explosive testimony being heard in Montreal by Justice John Gomery at the sponsorship inquiry -- testimony that cannot be revealed because of a publication ban.
Opposition parties yesterday were outraged when the Liberals were granted full standing at the Gomery inquiry, which allows their lawyers to cross-examine witnesses while taxpayers pick up the tab.
"Liberal spin doctors and Liberal lawyers are trying ... to depict the Liberal party as the victim of the sponsorship scandal. Caught as it is, will the government at least have the decency to simply admit that the only victim is the Canadian taxpayer whose money was stolen?" Mr. Harper demanded as he opened Question Period.
Mr. Martin responded by defending the honour of thousands of men and women in Quebec and across the country who are members of the Liberal party.
"They work day-in and day-out for the benefit of Canadians, and those members of the Liberal party should not have to bear the rumours or the burden of the activities of a very small few who may have colluded against the party and against the well-being of Canadians," a defensive Prime Minister told the Commons.
"We will defend those Liberals. These are Canadians who have given their all for their country."
But Mr. Martin was hammered again moments later when he responded to a question -- about the brutal torture and murder of journalist Zahra Kazemi in Iran -- by defending the Liberal party.
"That was a perfect example of what is wrong with this government. He should have used the opportunity to defend a Canadian citizen, not the Liberal party," Mr. Harper shouted.
Canadians are not allowed to know what key players such as Jean Brault, the Montreal ad agency executive whose firm earned millions of dollars from the sponsorship program, are telling the Gomery inquiry, even as U.S. Web sites are broadcasting the testimony on the Internet.
Public Works Minister Scott Brison yesterday conceded there is little that can be done to prevent the Internet from revealing the testimony. But he said the government will do everything it can to respect the publication ban and the rights of the individuals involved to a fair trial.
"We're standing up for all those who are interested in getting the answers by standing with Justice Gomery and getting to the bottom of this issue," Mr. Brison said.
Transport Minister Jean Lapierre, who is also the Prime Minister's Quebec lieutenant, suggested the culprits in the sponsorship scandal are a small group of individuals who "abused the trust of the Liberal party in the name of the Liberal party."
"A crook is a crook is a crook whether it's a Liberal, a Tory or a Bloc. We have no patience for crooks," said Mr. Lapierre, who held an emergency conference call with Quebec MPs yesterday morning to discuss the Gomery inquiry. Although MPs were hungry for details about what was going on and the chances of an election, they said they got few answers from Mr. Lapierre.
"I've never seen such a code of silence on anything before," said one Quebec MP.
"Everybody is scared ... to divulge anything."
Manitoba Conservative Brian Pallister said he is among a growing number of his caucus colleagues who want to topple the government and head to the polls now.
"Yes. You've got a clear unequivocal for me [for calling an immediate election]. I'm not at all concerned that we need to prop up this government any longer than is absolutely necessary," Mr. Pallister said last night. "We all recognize that there is a cost to running an election, but there's also a cost to Canadians in having this kind of government stay in power very much longer."
He said he expects the prospect of an election to be the top issue on the agenda at tomorrow's caucus meeting, and said he intends to make his views heard.
NDP leader Jack Layton weighed in, accusing Mr. Martin of shedding "crocodile tears" for the Liberal party, and called on the Prime Minister to pay back the "dirty money" his party has allegedly received.
Mr. Layton said his party does not want an election right now, but would be ready to hit the campaign trail if necessary. He also called on the Liberal party to put the same amount of money alleged to have been funnelled to the party through the sponsorship program into a trust fund.
Many opposition MPs seem confused by the Liberals' strategy of portraying themselves as victims in the sponsorship scandal.
Liberal party lawyer Doug Mitchell issued a statement yesterday saying he had contacted the RCMP "to ask that they investigate the possibility that the party itself may have been the target of fraud or other harmful acts by certain individuals."
Alberta Conservative MP James Rajotte called it "very bizarre and certainly a new twist" for the Liberals to be considered victims.
"I don't quite see how they would be victims in that circumstance -- they would appear to be the beneficiaries of any of that," he said.
Corporal Patrice Gelinas, spokesperson for the RCMP in Quebec, declined to provide any information about a request for an investigation.
So what's the deal? Well, as the Canadian I lifted this article from put it for us:
Long story short for people just tuning into this debacle: The Liberal government gave millions of taxpayer dollars to advertising firms to promote national unity (to counter separatists in Quebec). The problem: Many of these firms did little or no work that would justify the amounts they were paid, the accounting is a shambles, and the directors of these firms were Liberal supporters who made large contributions to the party's war-chest (laundering taxpayer money?).
Uh-oh. Spaghettios.
