Kate at Small Dead Animals discovered that Scott Brison, the former Tory MP who defected to the Liberals in 2003 and has passionately defended them during the Adscam crisis, has his own small contribution scandal brewing. Friday's Toronto Sun notes that a $4400 check sent to Brison in July from a contributor did not get cashed until the day after Brison's defection to the Liberals, and didn't ever get disclosed in campaign documents as required:

The cabinet minister who has mounted the vigorous defence of the Liberal government over Adscam is himself snared in a nasty money dispute with his old Conservative riding association that prompted a complaint to the RCMP, Sun Media has learned. For more than a year, Public Works Minister Scott Brison has been asked to provide receipts or invoices to the King-Hants Conservative riding association to account for a $4,400 cheque given to him in 2003, while he was a Tory MP.

"It's still not properly accounted for," said Debbie Janzen, who sat on the board of Brison's old Progressive Conservative Party riding association.

The cheque, which Brison assistant Dale Palmeter says was used to help pay down debts from his failed bid for the PC leadership in 2003, was made out to Brison on July 31 that year.

But it wasn't cashed until Dec. 11 - the day after he defected to Paul Martin's Liberals.

The money was deposited into Brison's personal bank account in Wolfville, N.S., and the contribution does not show up on the list of contributors to his campaign.

Kate has a scan of both sides of the cancelled check showing the contribution from Kings-Hants PC, dated July 31 but endorsed December 11. Note also the low check number: 099. It almost looks as though the account had barely been in existence. In the US, anything below usually comes from temporary checks.

I'm not sure what it means, but holding the check for five months and only cashing it after defecting looks very strange indeed.

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