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Thread: Canadian Sponsorship Scandal

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    Gio
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    Canadian Sponsorship Scandal

    It seems the Canadian Liberal Party is in the midst of a huge scandal that touches the far reaches of it's party. As I understand, there is a publication ban on details of secert testimony on our Canadian friends and bloggers, therefore I'm going to post details I've copied from other blogs:
    • * The locus of the corruption is the Jean Chretien faction of the Liberal Party (so much for his legacy)

      * The Paul Martin faction, however, is clearly connected.

      * Groupaction made $250,000 in legal contributions, and $450,000 more in illegal contributions, laundering tax money through the Sponsorship Program and sending the funds back to the Liberal Party (keeping a cut for themselves)

      * Two key Quebec organizers in the Martin faction, Jacques Olivier and Jacques Corriveau, knew what was going on.

      * Money was sent to Minister for Intergovernmental Affairs Lucienne Robillard's riding for a construction project, despite known problems with the project. Questions were suppressed and the funds made available under the direction of Martin lieutenant Yvon Desrochers. Desrocher committed suicide over another (unrelated) corruption scandal. It is not mentioned if Robillard knew any of the details.

      * Among the ghost staff Brault hired in order to launder money were Georges Farrah, later Paul Martin's Parliamentary Secretary, and John Welch, chief of staff to Heritage Minister Liza Frulla.

    If you want more on the scandal you can visit:
    http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/

    Update: a story on it
    April 02, 2005

    Canada's Corruption Scandal Breaks Wide Open

    A political scandal involving the Public Works Ministry, a government effort called the Sponsorship Program, and allegations of corruption in the ruling Liberal Party has Canada abuzz with rumors of payoffs, Mob ties, and snap elections. For the last two years, Canadian politics has been gripped by the so-called "sponsorship scandal" - tens of millions of dollars in government contracts which were funneled into advertizing firms closely connected with the Liberal government for little or no work, but with shadowy rumours that much of the money found its way back into Liberal coffers. Prime Minister Paul Martin, himself a Liberal, appointed the Gomery Commission to investigate these charges and determine whether to bring charges against government officials for corruption and malfeasance. (See the blog Small Dead Animals for some excellent background on the case.)

    Most of the testimony heard by the Commission has been public, but Judge Gomery has decided to create a publication ban on the testimony of three key witnesses: Jean Brault, president of the ad agency Groupaction, Charles Guité, an officer of the Public Works ministry who worked on the Sponsorship Program, and Paul Coffin, president of the ad agency Coffin Communications. The potential damage of their testimony has so unnerved the Liberal Party that they have reportedly started working towards a snap election so that they will not have to face the voters once the facts surface from the record.

    And well they might, if Brault's testimony gives any indication of what they will face. Thanks to a friend of mine, CQ readers can get a taste of what Brault has already told the Gomery Commission. For obvious reasons, I cannot reveal this person's name or position, but this person is in a position to have the information. Bear in mind that this comes from a single source, so while I have confidence in the information, you should consider the sourcing carefully.

    Payoffs And Kickbacks

    On Thursday, Jean Brault began his testimony, subject to the publication ban, and revealed a massive pattern of corruption going to the highest levels of the Liberal party and government. Brault testified to hundreds of thousands of dollars of bogus transactions designed to benefit the Liberal Party of Canada over a period from 1994 to 2002.

    Most of the illegal campaign contributions involved Brault either hiring "employees" -- who were in fact working full time on Liberal Party activities -- or paying invoices for Liberal Party campaign expenses (which were never declared as such) or making untraceable cash donations to Liberal officials. In exchange for helping the federal Liberals in Quebec, Brault received millions of dollars in federal advertising contracts.

    Brault said he met with Jean Carle, a key aide to then Prime Minister Jean Chretien to propose a more direct way of ensuring that Groupaction got a large share of federal advertising dollars in Quebec. Carle referred Brault to federal bureaucrat Charles ("Chuck") Guité and told him that "there was room for everybody." Guité later put together the sponsorship program, in which five Liberal connected firms -- including Groupaction -- were guaranteed a monopoly on government "sponsorship" advertising (e.g. federal
    advertising at sporting or cultural events) and related work. The sponsorship program eventually became a huge slush fund into which over $250 million was poured, over $100 million of which was paid in fees and commissions to these five advertising firms, with little or any evidence of work done or value for money.

    In exchange for these large contracts for little or no work, Brault kicked back generously to the Liberal Party, putting Liberal organizers on his payroll while they continued to perform party work (including, at one point, Prime Minister Jean Chrétien's brother, Gaby Chrétien), paying invoices to other companies for work actually done for the Liberal Party, and giving large donations -- in cash -- to the Liberal Party through Renaud or Liberal Party organizer (and close associate of Public Works Minister Alfonso Gagliano) Joe Morselli.

    Protection Racket?

    Towards the later part of the sponsorship program, the friends and associates of Public Works Minister and former ambassador to Denmark Alfonso Gagliano, some of whom have been linked to organized crime, played a larger role in the schemes.

    At one point, Gagliano associate Tony Mignacca told Brault that if he didn't rehire Renaud (who had left Groupaction to start a new company), he would lose his newly acquired contract with Via Rail -- Canada's state-run passenger rail service. Brault broke down in tears after he recounted this testimony. At a meeting in 2001 with Joe Morselli, Brault said that he arranged to have the meeting in an overheated room in a restaurant -- so that Brault could ask Morselli to take off his coat and ensure that he wasn't carrying a body pack.

    This is just the beginning of Brault's testimony. If the Gomery Commission can corroborate Brault, then the reek of corruption goes through all levels of the Liberal party and may explain their ability to out-campaign the Conservatives. After all, they've siphoned off hundreds of millions of government dollars to promote their own party and to guarantee their monopoly on power. They hijacked the Canadian tax base to fund their own campaigns and hide the financial trail.

    More will be forthcoming, but it isn't difficult to understand why Liberal politicians have begun to panic already.

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    *** sigh ***

    Summer election.
    Chimo

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    What publication ban? I don't think the government can do that. Everything you said has been in the papers.

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    Gio
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    http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/natio...hip050404.html
    This one?
    Canadian bloggers are backing down in the face of contempt of court threats.
    http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/Toront...81891-sun.html

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    Yeah, my bad, I didn't hear about this until this morning's National Post.

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    I hope the canadian people are outraged and will do something about it.

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    Despite the fact that everyone hates the Liberal Party they are the most successful political party in the Western world. Canadians know the Liberals are corrupt and spineless, yet they feel that the Conservative Party does not reflect "Canadian Values" (copyrighted by the Liberal Party) and also that the Conservative Party would be "too close" to America. Yet they are not stupid enough to vote in the socialist New Democratic Party. Aswell, Quebec alternates between two parties, the Liberals and the Bloc Quebecois, voting for either leads to Liberal victory in the end, since anything drawing support from the Conservatives is a Liberal gain (although the BQ made sure the Liberals didn't get a majority last election).

    In other words, some Liberal heads will roll but the party itself will be re-elected by a Canadian public that is satisifed with the status quo and will not seek to move left or right (which ARE the only alternatives).

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    The fault is Brian Mulroney and Kim Campbell of the PC. Mulroney essentially acted as king, 1st with the Free Trade Agreement, then slipped the most hated tax in history in, and then tried to ram the Meech Lake Accords down Canada's throat.

    Kim Campbell came in, expecting to the take the reigns, with minimal election preparation, ill management of her portfollio (the Department of National Defence), in fact, completely ignored it, and it exploded in her face (Somalia) but acted though it was none of her business.

    As a result, Chretien and his cronies got Canada and the Conservatives were divided ever since.
    Chimo

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    Sorry, but I don't see how the fault for the current situation has to do with a PC PM from 20 years ago. The fault is with the majority of voters in particular regions (particularly Ontario) who are willing to live with an incredibly corrupt, incompetent, complacent and arrogant government party for no other reason than they say what the public wants to hear (even if it's a lie). Next election, vote for 75 seats Conservative, 75 seats BQ, 75 seats NDP and 75 seats Green Party - the rest for the Liberals.
    Last edited by deadkenny; 11 Apr 05, at 20:25.

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    The fault is that the PC was effectively destroyed by those two and what was left of the conservative political ideology has been trying to organize themselves into a coherant voice since then and only have been achieved recently.
    Chimo

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    Poll today in the Toronto Star said that if an election were held today the Conservatives would win. They are beating the Liberals in EVERY PROVINCE (including Quebec), and nationally they are 11 points above the Liberals.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Officer of Engineers
    The fault is that the PC was effectively destroyed by those two and what was left of the conservative political ideology has been trying to organize themselves into a coherant voice since then and only have been achieved recently.
    That was more the fault of Joe Clark who blocked any attempt to reorganize an effect 'conversative' opposition for so many years.

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    Quote Originally Posted by ZFBoxcar
    Poll today in the Toronto Star said that if an election were held today the Conservatives would win. They are beating the Liberals in EVERY PROVINCE (including Quebec), and nationally they are 11 points above the Liberals.
    It remains to be seen if that lead survives the Liberal smear campaign and hostile media microscope that will come with the next election campaign.

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    Quote Originally Posted by deadkenny
    That was more the fault of Joe Clark who blocked any attempt to reorganize an effect 'conversative' opposition for so many years.
    Maybe so but had it not been for Mulroney and Campbell, Clark would not have been in a position to block a unification.
    Chimo

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    Banned deadkenny's Avatar
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    True, but Mulooney and Campbell were only responsible for losing the one election. It was Clark who guaranteed the prolonged period of Liberal election wins in the years following that.

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