Posted on 04/08/2005 10:07:15 AM PDT by GMMAC
Canada's Watergate
Don Martin
National Post (front page!)
Friday, April 08, 2005
He glanced at reporters salivating to escape his news quarantine, looked at the bank of television cameras carrying his inquiry live for the first time in a week and issued the order: Unleash hell.
When Justice John Gomery lifted his own publication ban Thursday on jaw-dropping testimony by Groupaction president Jean Brault, a nightmare of allegations against the federal Liberal party gushed forth into the public domain in a firestorm of ferocity.
National television networks went live, government antagonists went wild in Question Period, urgent alerts pinged across the newswires.
The dam protecting federal Liberals from the disclosure of their party's ugly past had been breached -- and Canada's Watergate spilled out.
In six days of unflappable testimony, Brault recounted living a life of dirty tricks with rotten scoundrels pocketing, procuring and defrauding taxpayers by using a $100-million advertising pot set aside to promote national unity in post-referendum Quebec as their own private slush fund.
The Liberals swapped cash for contracts, kicked back money for nothing and traded payola for spots on Brault's payroll.
It's the darkest side of ugly Canadian politics, confirming every cynic's worst suspicions that grease and slime lubricate the wheels of government activity.
If Brault's allegations stick and voter revulsion spreads beyond Quebec, this Liberal government's fate can now be carved in six words on its sponsorship program tombstone: Extortion. Kickbacks. Forgeries. Blackmail. Fraud. Waste.
Brault painted a graphic picture of Liberal conduct in Quebec as that of a secret mutual backscratching society where public money was laundered through bogus business deals to fill up cash-strapped Liberal party coffers. It was bold, crass, transparent sleaze with organized crime overtones, complete with cartoon-caper nicknames like White Head for one top operative or Choo Choo Man for the head of Via Rail.
Cuddling with the Liberals in Quebec in the mid to late 1990s meant the right hire or the correct amount of cash in an envelope was the fast track to juicy government contracts. If that wasn't reward enough, there was the option of kickbacks through false invoices, inflated costs or simply taking the money for pretend projects.
The legitimate worry now being reflected even by federalist opposition parties is that a program custom-designed to promote the face of Canada in Quebec will give separatism an referendum-winning facelift. The irony is too ugly to contemplate.
OK, perhaps a journalistic Valium is in order here -- this is, after all, all single-witness testimony. And the witness is not exactly lily-white, with Brault now facing six conspiracy and fraud charges, with a June 6 court date.
Still, corroboration by others involved in the scandal is emerging and some of Brault's say-so on the stand has documentation to support his recollections.
So will the scandal stick? Haven't a clue. But after days watching the testimony on closed-circuit television, little things linger in the memory as defining images of the scandal.
Like, say, the $5,000 in an envelope Brault says he brought to pay off a Liberal fundraiser he was told to hire. (Brault left it on the table when he visited the washroom, only to find it gone when he returned.)
Or the Liberal insider ordered on to Groupaction's payroll for $7,000 a month, whose only work appeared to be writing a fawning biography of former public works minister Alfonso Gagliano.
Or the racing car we paid $30,000 for, to be decorated with two Maple Leaf bumper stickers.
It all adds up to a party brand tarred and feathered for the long run, which could end up turning its minority rule into a short-term proposition.
If Brault's testimony is not rendered fictional by future testimony at the inquiry, being Liberal means never having to worry about being elected in Quebec. They'd have better luck running in the dry Grit gulch of Alberta, where the provincial Liberal leader is thinking of changing his party's name to escape the poisoned brand name.
While the tentacles reach high into Jean Chretien's organizational chart, it must be stressed they stop short of touching Paul Martin. That might not matter. This is one heavy albatross Martin will haul into the next election -- and while I'd never underestimate the Ontario voters' ability to forgive the Liberals almost anything, this is going to be harder for Martin to overcome than his 2004 sponsorship mea culpa.
The Liberal spin of this as a scandal confined to a small band of unsupervised rascals who auctioned off contracts to the highest bidder and used the proceeds to line their own pockets is a tough sell. How, then, to explain the rogue party official who was able, after receiving a $50,000 cash bribe, to muscle the justice ministry into killing a planned advertising tender for the much maligned firearms registry, leaving the business in Brault's hands? That's deep penetration stuff, not just the small circle running the sponsorship program.
These and a host of other inquiry revelations have left the Prime Minister of Canada floundering in a political maelstrom, the leader of a party that could be dragged into an election at any time by Opposition forces while it remains vulnerable to an electoral wipeout in Quebec.
As for Jean Brault, he's no hero. The spectators who cheered him as he left the inquiry have confused him with an altruistic whistleblower. He's nothing of the sort -- merely a self-admitted scam artist taking down as many cohorts as possible before he's hauled into court. But as of today, he has unleashed enough hell on the government that the keys to 24 Sussex Drive are jangling in front of the Conservatives.
If only the Quebec Liberals' mentality prevails in the next government, someone in Stephen Harper's office will reward Jean Brault with a hefty advertising contract. No kickback required.
© National Post 2005
Well, it could be part of the lovers dance where Americans regard Canada with patronizing neglect and Canadians develop some bitterness because of it. It's beautiful, really.
The Liberals basically are the same as US Democrats, at least the mainstream of the Democratic Party. John Kerry and Hillary Clinton are in that group.
The Conservatives are generally equated to the Republican Party, although the more moderate ones would be equal to the right wing of the Democratic Party. George W. Bush would probably belong here, although it stretches to the right Democrats like Joe Lieberman.
The NDP is left of any major US party, equal to European socialist parties. Ralph Nader would be in line with them, along with the leftist Democrats like Dennis Kucinich.
The Bloc are simply a separatist party for Quebec, trying to get Quebec independent. They are ideologically in line with the NDP.
The average Canadian is utterly screwed.
Liberal = left of centre but still fiscally conservative here and there.
NDP = FAR left
CPC = right of centre
The reason for CPC being moderate because of our system. Toronto and Quebec, two super socilaist cities, control the enitre country. So inmagine CPC trying to get elected. Hope you'll understand. While it's true Harper (leader of CPC) is trying to look moderate but under his skin he is a hardcore conservative.
No difference, it appears, between Canada's liberals and liberals here in the U.S. They are corrupt as can be.
Gomergate?
> I wish I could care about Canada...
Canada is our neighbor and most important trading partner.
Canada should stand with us and Britain and Australia in the war...hopefully that will change.
"...and, while I'd never underestimate the Ontario voters' ability to forgive the Liberals almost anything..."
Count on it! Those wacky and wasted Canucks from Canuckistan will blow this atrocity off, just like they've blown off every other egregious Liberal scandal for generations. And they'll vote the rascals BACK IN! Bet on it!
F*** Canuckistan!
Try to ignore the naysayers... aside from being a plankowner on Free Dominion, I've spent time, and have some relatives in Canada, and there are some good folks up there. They just need to work on their guvvimint a little, like we do. Keep kicking the scoundrels out of office until you get a better class of scoundrel.
thanks. interesting that there are two liberal parties, yet despite this the liberals have controlled the government. I guess that happens in palimentary systems. Why no further-right party? No market for it?
Then why post?
Adscam.
"Why no further-right party? No market for it?"
I said it before. Our systems are setup in a way that Toronto and Montreal control the entire country (that region is 1/3 of Canada's populations). The two cities are VERY socialist. So if you are a conservatives and want to get into power you'll have to eat dirt if you know what I mean.
Now try to imagine if New York and Cali's cities control the US. Do you not think the GOP gonna have to eat dirt too?.
That or sweep the rest of Canada...
It's good to see that the judge lifted the publication ban, and that Brault's testimony was as explosive as expected. I doubt the CPC will win a majority of ridings without significant gains in Quebec. But hopefully, the Liberals will lose seats there and in the Toronto area - enough so that the CPC picks up the plurality of seats in Parliament. I'm guessing an election will be called by someone soon.
Gomergate?
HAHAHA! LOL! Hope this term sticks...
"I'm guessing an election will be called by someone soon."
Only the CPC can do that.
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