Smoking gun ...???
This Gomery thing is getting more like
uncovering radioactivity at Hiroshima!
Posted on 04/12/2005 11:37:40 AM PDT by Pikamax
Gomery hears of secret cash donation to Liberals CTV.ca News Staff
A former Groupaction controller told the sponsorship inquiry Tuesday that he gave Jean Brault $15,000, supporting statements made earlier by Brault that he gave secret cash payments to the Liberals.
Ex-controller Bernard Michaud testified before the Gomery inquiry that he gave his boss (Brault) the cash in April 1997, around the same time Brault claims to have given $15,000 in cash to a party official.
The cheque register tabled at the inquiry backs up Michaud's testimony, showing that a $15,000 cheque was issued in his name on April 28, 1997.
Last month, Brault told the inquiry that he asked Michaud to withdraw that amount in March or April 1997.
"Jean Brault (said he) needed $15,000 quickly and he didn't have the time to go to the bank," recalled Michaud.
Michaud said he told his boss, "'Jean, $15,000 can't be found quickly.'"
"So I told him, 'We'll make out a cheque in my name in advance and we'll arrange it later," Michaud testified.
"I made out a cheque in my name, and I cashed it ... and gave it to Jean Brault."
Michauld said that he was never told what the cash would be used for.
Brault told the Gomery inquiry that particular payment was made under the leadership of Benoit Corbeil, who ran the Quebec Liberals in the late 1990s. Brault said that Corbeil thanked him for the donation, which was the first installment of a $50,000 total, and promised to compensate Groupaction.
Damaging testimony made before the sponsorship inquiry could lead to the collapse of the Liberal minority government, and send Canadians to the polls for the second time in a year.
Brault claimed in his six days of testimony that he systematically kicked back huge amounts of taxpayer money to the federal Liberal party, a deception he claims involved senior Liberal organizers and people close to former prime minister Jean Chretien.
His testimony alleged secret meetings, phoney paper trails, unmarked envelopes stuffed with cash and bogus billings.
With files from The Canadian Press
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Please let me know if you want on/off the Adscam ping list. :-)
Thanks- for whatever reason, I can't access Free Dominion. Wonder if they are having more vandalism problems?
It's been off an on for some time and finally went down about 1.5 hrs ago.
Thanks for the info- if there's a technical or hacker problem, I expect EntropySquared will chime in at some point.
Alternative Free Dominion backup sites:
http://www.freedominion.org/phpBB/recent.php
http://pub1.ezboard.com/fcatholicdiscussionfrm14
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