The Gomery pre-report leak
Archived Articles | 28 Oct 2005 | Adu RaudkiviEWR
The report by Justice John Gomery on his investigation into the 'Adscam' scandal was supposed to be completed by December of this year. The first part, however, will be ready November 1, the second part by February of 2006. Prime Minister Paul Martin has said that he would call an election thirty days after the release of the complete report.
Why, then, has there been a leak of information, exposed first by the Toronto Star’s esteemed columnist James Travers?
The leak said simply, that the blame for the $250 million sponsorship program rests with a small group of political players around former Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, who shuttled money to 'Liberal friendly' ad agencies for little or no work.
Briefly, Travers outlined the following. The first (of the two) reports will point out that the controls to protect the taxpayers failed. It adds that it was hard to follow the money trail the closer it reached to the top.
Blame is being directed at players like Jean Brault, the president of the advertising firm Groupaction, who was paid millions for work for the sponsorship program that couldn't be defined. The company logo on the front door had a black circle under the firms’s name Groupaction with the initials JWT inside the circle. Once the scandal erupted the initials were blacked out. JWT stands for the international public relations firm J. Walter Thompson, who was responsible for supplying the disgraced presidential administration of Richard Nixon with some of his top personnel - like Chief of Staff John D. Ehrlichman and chief aide H.R. “Bob" Haldeman.
Paul Coffin ran another advertising firm that also benefited under the sponsorship program. He admitted guilt in court and was the first to be punished by the system, albeit receiving only a suspended sentence. In order to gain such leniency Coffin promised to repay the monies he unlawfully gained through ‘Adscam’.
The list goes on. Chuck Guité was the point man for the government. Jean Pelletier, Chrétien's former chief of staff, brings the scandal even closer to Chrétien.
Jacques Corriveau, a political insider, with his midnight visits to Chrétien’s home, which he claims to not remember, is yet another definite link to the former Prime Minister.
The conclusions of the Gomery Commission are derived from the inconsequential testimony of Chrétien's constitutional affairs minister Stéphane Dion. Dion did not know about the sponsorship program, and if he would have, wouldn't have thought much of it.
Dion's testimony helped move culpability away from the cabinet with the exception of Minister of Public Works Alfonso Gagliano, and Chrétien's Québec right-hand man, to the Prime Minister's Office.
The big question to be asked now, is did Prime Minister Paul Martin know about the program. The spinmeisters say no. Martin was out of the loop.
Just ten days before Gomery Phase One is to be released, the government is about to introduce a new 'accountability system'. The Liberals are claiming that this will be the most advanced system of accountability and oversight of any government in the world.
Treasury Board president Reg Alcock said, "We will lead the world in the rigourness of our internal compliance and I guarantee other governments will follow."
New Public Works Minister Scott Brison and Alcock said that over the next three years the government will hire new chief audit executives to oversee all spending.
An expert on government organization, Gilles Paquet, with the Governance Centre at the University of Ottawa doesn't think the plan will stop tha abuse of public funds.
We wait with considerable anticipation the full impact and findings of Gomery One. I'm sure that so will Jean Chrétien and many others.
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