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| Great White North |
| Corruption Probe of Former PM Chretien's Liberal Gov't |
| 2005-02-08 |
| $100 million Cash-for-Favours Scandal. Schadenfreude is a shameful vice -- but I just don't like Chretien, who is related to Jacques Chiraq by marriage. Two feuding Canadian prime ministers will this week add spice to a probe into a cash-for-favors corruption scandal which threatens the future of the minority Liberal government. Prime Minister Paul Martin and predecessor Jean Chretien will appear before the inquiry, which is looking into how C$100 million ($80 million) in government funds was funneled to firms with close Liberal links at a time when Chretien was in power. Voter anger over the scandal cost the Liberals their parliamentary majority in last June's election and Martin confidants fear the longer the probe continues, the less chance the Liberals will stand at the next vote. Transport Minister Jean Lapierre, a close ally of Martin's, said over the weekend that the daily testimony was like "water torture" for the party. "It's very difficult to have a positive message when every night the reputation of (Liberal) politicians is at stake," he told the Canadian Press. He may well have been referring to sensational headlines above the testimony of senior Chretien aide Jean Carle, who admitted last Friday he had created a false paper trail to hide one particular C$125,000 deal. "If this had been a drug deal that (the paper trail) would have been called 'money laundering'... it's the same principle, isn't it? Am I wrong?" he asked Carle. "You're not wrong," replied Carle. The inquiry started last September and is supposed to end in December 2005. Most of the C$100 million was spent in the French-speaking province of Quebec as Ottawa mounted a public relations campaign to boost its image in the wake of a failed 1995 independence referendum. "In Canadian terms a corruption issue doesn't get much bigger ... so the stakes for the Liberal Party are amazing," Chretien biographer Lawrence Martin told CBC television. Chretien aides say he will try to blame bureaucrats for the scandal but those close to Martin -- who has been at odds with his arch rival since the two men ran for the leadership of the Liberals in 1990 -- said last year the former prime minister must bear some of the responsibility. The scandal erupted on Feb. 10 last year, shortly after angry Martin supporters forced Chretien to retire early. Martin immediately set up the inquiry and said there must have been some political direction behind the scandal. Chretien -- who sacked Martin as finance minister in June 2002 -- is scheduled to testify on Tuesday and possibly Wednesday and Martin will appear on Thursday. It will be the first time a sitting and a former Canadian prime minister have given evidence at the same inquiry. ($1=$1.25 Canadian) |
| Posted by:trailing wife |
| #2 Canada is no longer a country. It is a collection of badly run health care providers. |
| Posted by: john 2005-02-08 8:41:45 PM |
| #1 That's Canada for you the former PM is corrupt, and the current one is geographically challenged... |
| Posted by: BigEd 2005-02-08 5:21:00 PM |