April 2, 2005
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...
April 3, 2005
Canada's Sponsorship Program scandal, called Adscam north of the border, may result in snap elections. At first, this was thought to support the Liberal Party, the undeniable if temporary beneficiary of Judge Gomery's publication ban on key testimony at the...
I spent most of the day offline, as today was my birthday and I'm still trying to shake off the effects of the flu or a nasty cold (not sure which). I spoke with a couple of Canadian reporters regarding...
In a late update to the Adscam story, the Canadian Liberal Party will request standing at the Gomery Commission tomorrow in order to cross-examine Jean Brault. This news has not yet been published in any Canadian newspaper, but I understand...
April 4, 2005
After CTV named Captain's Quarters on their news program last night, the site got swarmed with tens of thousands of visitors, leading to some slower response times (sorry!) and a "magnitude" increase of traffic for blogs who I've linked, especially...
I expect to have more information today on the Adscam testimony, as well as more background information on why this matters to both Canadians and Americans. That may come later in the day, probably in the early evening. In the...
Despite having a ruined voice thanks to a lingering bout of laryngitis, I spent most of my work breaks juggling telephone interviews with Canadian media outlets. For the most part, they wanted to know why I broke the publication ban....
This installment of the testimony of Jean Brault at the Gomery Commission comes from Friday and follows the first installment. Today;s testimony is still being rebuilt from notes and may not be ready until tomorrow. Again, I want to caution...
April 5, 2005
Jane Taber reports in this morning's edition of the Globe and Mail on a second interview I gave her yesterday, when I had a moment and my voice could handle it. It's meant to give Canadian readers some background on...
In an odd display of twisted priorities, Canada's Attorney General may start investigating the Canadian blogosphere to find bloggers who have linked back to CQ and broken the publication ban: CANADA'S attorney general is probing possible breaches of a publication...
My source for the testimony for the Gomery Inquiry has told me not to expect an update today on yesterday's or today's hearings tonight. The actions of the Attorney General have spooked some people in the courtroom, and apparently Justice...
April 6, 2005
The following is a translation of the two installments of Jean Brault's testimony at the Gomery Inquiry into French, for the benefit of readers in Quebec. The translation was kindly provided to me by CQ reader P.E. from Montréal. The...
Continue reading "Scandale Des Commandites" »
Justice Lise Côté postponed the trials of Jean Brault and Chuck Guité until June 2nd, far shorter than the September date the two men requested to prepare their defense. The shorter date calls into question whether Justice Gomery will lift...
The Toronto Sun has developed its own independent sources into the Sponsorship Program scandal, uncovering more corruption at Groupaction while Jean Brault testifies under a publication ban at the Gomery Inquiry. The Canadian website Angry in the Great White North...
Justice Gomery has put off a decision on lifting the publication ban on Adscam testimony until tomorrow, in part because Liberal cross-examination of Jean Brault took longer than expected: Mr. Justice John Gomery decided late in the day Wednesday that...
April 7, 2005
One complaint that Americans receive from Canadians, and deservedly so, is how little our media covers Canadian issues, leaving Americans poorly informed of the affairs of our northern neighbors. I don't believe it to be deliberate, but in an effort...
A couple of updates on Adscam for Canadian readers this morning: First, after I posted about the Toronto Sun's allegations yesterday about Parti Quebecois receiving Sponsorship Program monies through Groupaction, several people e-mailed and commented that PQ vigorously denied the...
Justice John Gomery has lifted the publication ban on Jean Brault's testimony, allowing the Canadian media to finally report the testimony to the Canadian public. As CTV demonstrates in its data-dump format, the facts as presented by CQ's source stand...
Now that the publication ban has been lifted, at least from the Brault testimony (more on that in a moment), the Canadian media have taken over the role of presenting the information that should have been available to Canadians all...
April 9, 2005
Testimony continued in public at the Gomery Inquiry on Friday, and much of it devastated the Liberal Party and its former leader, Jean Chretien. Witnesses tied Adscam efforts directly to Chretien's staff, including his brother Gaby, for the first time...
New polling in the wake of the explosive testimony by Jean Brault shows that the Liberal Party in Canada may have done what some thought impossible -- given new hope to the Tories. An Ipsos poll for G&M/CTV shows the...
April 10, 2005
Greg Weston writes in today's Ottawa Sun that the Gomery testimony not only paints a bleak picture of corruption and sleaze regarding the Sponsorship Program, but that it also contains clues showing that the graft extends far beyond that --...
The Sponsorship Program scandal promises to take a sporting turn on Monday, when Justice John Gomery will likely begin questioning GP backer Normand Legault and Liberal functionary Jacques Corriveau. One of the first issues addressed will be the disposition of...
April 11, 2005
The Globe & Mail reports this morning that Canadian PM Paul Martin will employ a new strategy in combatting the public perception of widespread corruption in the Liberal Party by using two new tactics. First, Martin will press the notion...
In a sign that the reformist mood has gained momentum in Ottawa, two close confidants of Prime Minister Paul Martin have been subpoenaed to testify to a Commons committee to review contracts awarded to research firms with close ties to...
CTV announced the results of a new Ipsos poll this evening, taken after the release of Jean Brault's previously-embargoed testimony, which shows the Liberals trailing the Tories nationally for the first time in years. Martin's Liberals have dropped to 27%,...
April 12, 2005
Testifying before the Gomery Inquiry today, former Groupaction controller Bernard Michaud produced a check register and testified to helping to covertly direct illegal cash contributions to the Liberal Party. Michaud's testimony provides the first independent corroboration of the illegal cash...
Rondi Adamson writes in tomorrow's Christian Science Monitor about Adscam and the publication ban in the Internet age, and notes the futility of the practice in today's context: A Canadian publication ban and an American blogger clashed last week. The...
April 13, 2005
Jacques Corriveau, close confidante to former Liberal PM Jean Chrétien and a major player in party politics, won over $6.7 million in Sponsorship Program contracts through a lesser-known and lower-profile subprogram referred to as the Polygone deals. Luc Lemay, Polygone's...
Jack Kelly pens a speculative but interesting take on Adscam this morning in Jewish World Review, noting that the probable fall of the Liberal government could have wide-ranging effects on Canadian stability and its energy policies, among other things. With...
April 14, 2005
Canadian PM Paul Martin refused to answer questions regarding his earlier assertions that he barely knew of Claude Boulay when new testimony shows that he met with Boulay over lunch at least once. Instead, Martin used his Question Period rebuttal...
Jacques Corriveau took the stand today at the Gomery Inquiry, and despite a haughty manner with the press, painted himself as a rather humble, if cultured, person of good fortune. Apparently Corriveau finds that easier to explain than admitting to...
April 15, 2005
Since Canadians and Americans have tax deadlines within a couple of weeks of each other, form-filing is almost equally relevant on either side of the 49th Parallel in April. Today, as my good friend David Strom puts it, is a...
CQ regular Ed_in_CDA points out a story which goes beyond the Gomery publication ban and into a truly frightening display of speech suppression in Calgary. The police chief of Calgary shut down a website that had been critical of him...
April 16, 2005
A new Ipsos poll shows that Canadians have begun to seriously lose faith with the Liberal Party and increasingly will turn to the Conservatives, the Globe & Mail reports this morning. The flood of testimony and evidence coming from the...
April 17, 2005
For those who have followed the explosive developments in Canada's Sponsorship Program corruption case and the spectacular testimony, an expectation that the money-laundering conspiracy would result in wholesale criminal convictions across a wide swath of the political class would be...
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...
April 18, 2005
The Hill Times reports today that Canadian MPs from all parties have begun to panic as a new election looks increasingly certain in the near future, because the Canadian government has not yet paid MPs for their last contest. Canadians...
April 19, 2005
Two parallel investigations into political corruption got close enough to the current Liberal Prime Minister to scare Canada's ruling party to the point that their parliamentarians canceled a previously-scheduled Opposition Day -- an action seen as an attempt to deny...
Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin may have serious trouble on his hands on two separate fronts. Both the Gomery Inquiry and the Commons investigation into Earnscliffe produced testimony that placed the Liberal party leader squarely within the corruption of both...
New Gomery Inquiry testimony shows that while the people who actually performed work on government contracts received appropriate compensation for their efforts, the middlemen tied to Liberal politicians made almost twenty times as much without lifting a finger. The Sponsorship...
April 20, 2005
The Liberals gambled everything they had left on stripping Parliament of any opportunity to introduce a no-confidence vote that would topple the Martin regime -- their credibility, any hope of an alliance with the NDP, and what remained of public...
Having exhausted every other possibility to keep his Liberal government from collapsing and facing a ruinous election as early as June, Paul Martin plans on making a speech on Canadian television tonight to convince voters to pressure Parliament to postpone...
April 21, 2005
It has been twelve days since the Calgary Police Chif, Jack Beaton, used an Anton Piller order from a local court to silence an internal critic under the guise of a slander civil case. Beaton conducted a raid on her...
Adscam figure Claude Boulay continued his testimony to the Gomery Inquiry yesterday, while a bit more of Jean Brault's embargoed testimony made it through the publication ban. Brault insisted that Boulay gave $50,000 in a secret donation to provincial Liberals...
Paul Martin may have even more corruption to explain in his extraordinary televised speech tonight, as new allegations that his Liberal Party handed out positions on the judicial bench in exchange for political favors has rocked Canada this afternoon (via...
Paul Martin's political collapse may have turned from tragedy to farce tonight as he appealed to Canadians to allow his government to continue for another eight months, even as new allegations of corruption call into question the impartiality of the...
April 22, 2005
CQ reader Ed in Canada points out the latest in publication bans north of the 49th, in the case of a suspected gang ringleader who violated his bail agreement. Not only did the Canadian judge release Michael Kim, Marlene Graham...
April 25, 2005
The Gomery Inquiry has imposed new publication bans, as expected, on upcoming testimony into its investigation of corruption and money laundering in the Sponsorship Program. Chuck Guité and Paul Coffin will testify shortly, after Gomery hears from some other figures...
April 26, 2005
CQ reader Ed_in_Cda points out an article in today's Ottawa Sun which delineates some interesting transactions relating to Sponsorship Program money. Ad agencies in the program spent over $600,000 on a series of soccer matches pitting three international soccer teams...
Paul Martin, whose minority Liberal government appeared to approach collapse in the wake of the explosive Adscam testimony, may have used Canadian tax money yet again to retain power -- this time by spending it on NDP budget priorities in...
April 27, 2005
After having enabled a possible lifeline to the embattled Prime Minister and a Liberal Party swimming in corruption, Jack Layton defended his alliance with Paul Martin last night by claiming that getting his budget preferences passed outweighed the cost of...
CQ reader Western Separatist wrote me earlier today about the publication ban in place on the testimony of Paul Coffin and Chuck Guité, and whether I would publish accounts of the testimony in defiance of the ban. Just to reiterate...
Paul Coffin testified under the publication ban on the Sponsorship Program scandal, and provided yet more blockbuster testimony -- which Justice Gomery released for immediate publication this time. Coffin testified that Chuck Guité and other federal bureaucrats deliberately set up...
One of the bitter ironies of the Canadian Adscam scandal involves the status of Quebec. Originally, the government launched the Sponsorship Program as a public-relations effort to convince Quebeckers that they are a vital part of the Canadian federation, hoping...
April 28, 2005
Jack Layton, the leader of Canada's New Democrat Party (NDP), accused Tory leader Stephen Harper of cuddling up to separatists in his quest to topple the Liberal government. Layton also played into fears of Nova Scotians that any government collapse...
April 29, 2005
After the testimony of Jean Brault blew open the Adscam scandal and demonstrated the extent of Liberal Party corruption, Stephen Harper had an opening to call new elections and topple the Martin government. He chose to wait until an overwhelming...
April 30, 2005
Former Canadian PM Jean Chrétien made an appearance in Philadelphia to accept an award as an "international role model" while his political cronies and aides face ruinous testimony tying his administration to widespread corruption and graft in the Sponsorship Program....
May 2, 2005
After new polling emerged showing that Liberals have rebounded significantly from the initial Adscam revelations, a Tory MP from the Liberal stronghold of Ontario has announced his preference to delay new elections, throwing the upcoming no-confidence vote into doubt: Cracks...
Requests for delays on trials for Jean Brault and Chuck Guité may result in the lifting of the publication ban currently in place for Guité's testimony. Lawyers for the two key Adscam figures requested continuances until September to prepare their...
Stephen Harper came out of a Conservative caucus meeting tonight vowing to table a no-confidence motion as soon as possible, adding that the Tory caucus had unanimously backed his strategy: Conservative Leader Stephen Harper emerged from a caucus meeting late...
May 3, 2005
I have received a number of e-mails questioning why I am not posting testimony that is subject to the publication ban. I have explained this in previous posts, but the number of these e-mailed queries appears to be increasing, which...
A Conservative MP with the memorable name Inky Mark claims that the new Liberal survival strategy will rely on buying Tory MPs in order to undermine Stephen Harper. Mark told the Canadian media in several interviews that the Grits attempted...
May 4, 2005
Thanks to a new source, I have received an extensive amount of the testimony given by Chuck Guité last Thursday and Friday under the publication ban. This testimony will take me hours to review for content, so please bear with...
Here's a taste of what one can expect to read now that the publication ban has been lifted on Chuck Guité's testimony, just minutes after I received a good deal of it from a covert source. (UPDATE: The ban is...