Criminal fraud charges were laid and convictions obtained against ad firm heads Paul Coffin and Jean Brault, as well as Charles (Chuck) Guité, the public works department official who oversaw the sponsorship program. Coffin and Brault are free on early release after serving part of their prison sentences, while Guité is free pending an appeal of his conviction. Results of a Quebec provincial police investigation into Lafleur Communications, one of the advertising firms most deeply implicated in the affair, have been submitted to the Crown prosecutor's office in Montreal, says reporter Daniel Leblanc of The Globe and Mail in Nom de Code: MaChouette, an account of his lengthy investigation into the sponsorship affair.
The decline of civility in Parliament began with the Liberal Rat Pack in the 1980s, continued with the arrival of the sanctimonious Reform Party in the 1990s and has accelerated through the sponsorship scandal in the present decade to reach new lows in the Mulroney-Schreiber affair. [...] in the sponsorship scandal, the Conservatives mercilessly flayed the Liberals for corruption, in both the House and in the Public Accounts Committee, which could have been dismissed as a bad farce had so many personal reputations and corporate brands not come under attack.
That was the year that Jean Chretien prorogued Parliament for two months in mid-November. Speculation had it that he did so to avoid having to sit alongside Paul Martin in the House of Commons, since Martin was to be acclaimed new party leader in November. And of course it's possible that he wanted to avoid taking the increasing flak from the sponsorship scandal. Also, the 84 articles included several references to Ontario's legislature, which also was prorogued in 2003. Speaking of CBC's The House, on Jan. 23 it featured Iggy's sidekick, Bob Rae, singing Just Prorogue to the Beatles tune, Let It Be. But don't worry if you missed it. You can also catch him on the Maclean's website. Rae is quoted as saying that [Stephen Harper] "made a terrible decision. To his credit, [Tom Walkom] also...
... called a public inquiry into the sponsorship scandal and as the Gomery Commission took its cour...
He used to be [Michael Ignatieff]'s roommate at the University of Toronto. He used to be a NDP MP. He used to be Ontario's NDP premier. Today he wants to kick Ignatieff's butt and become Liberal leader after only taking out a a Liberal membership this spring. If you are looking for a Westerner to pull for, you may as well root for [Gerard Kennedy]. He may have been a minister in Dalton McGuinty's Ontario Liberal cabinet, but he's born in The Pas and schooled at St. John's Ravenscourt. He's the fresh face in the race, unburdened by the sponsorship scandal which helped sink the [Paul Martin] Liberals. He's the former director of a food bank who is advocating for bank mergers. And he's the one who shook up the race big time on Monday by announcing he doesn't back Stephen Harper's motion on...
... the Auditor General's report on the sponsorship scandal until his successor took office. There are...
Conservatives are claiming a parallel in former prime minister Jean Chretien's decision to prorogue Parliament Nov. 13, 2003, saying it also was done to avoid embarrassment from auditor general Sheila Fraser's report on the sponsorship scandal. There were other factors at play, however. The Liberals had a big majority, not a minority, the investigation was finished, not underway and Chretien was retiring to be replaced by Paul Martin. Chretien told reporters that when Parliament returned Jan. 13, 2004, "there will be a new cabinet and I will not be a minister. Under the headline Parliamentary scrutiny may be tedious, but democracies cannot afford to dispense with it, the respected centre-right British magazine The Economist, noted [Harper]'s "ruthless streak" and said his move "looks l...
Bloc MP Carole Lavallee accused the Conservatives of "using government money to spew their propaganda in Quebec" and even suggested this is like the sponsorship scandal. The arguments have all been made: the Quebec government doesn't offer any funding like other provinces do so Ottawa has to kick in more; the Quebec festivals that have been getting the money from years have come to expect it and can't just be cut off without notice. A Nova Scotia company sent every MP a package of its new "aromapods" to help "keep the mood in the House of Commons focused and upbeat.
A STRONGER ROLE FOR JUSTICE: In the early 1990s, it became popular to acknowledge and address the ethics deficit in politics by drafting new codes of conduct for politicians and civil servants and by appointing ethics commissioners or watchdogs to enforce them. While this approach may have some merit, it did nothing to prevent the sponsorship scandal or the ethical laxity that permitted it, and appears to make ethical considerations an add-on to the regular business of politics and government rather than an integral part of that business. Years ago, I conducted a poll prior to a municipal election asking voters the simple question: "Did you vote in the last municipal election?" It turned out that twice as many respondents answered "yes" as had actually voted. In other words, one out of ...
A few months ago, when every vote counted, Prime Minister Stephen Harper thought Information Commissioner John Reid was a pretty smart fellow. Harper's Conservatives campaigned on a promise to implement Reid's blueprint for a more open, accountable federal government as an antidote to the corruption and waste of the sponsorship scandal. He labelled the Conservatives' proposals "retrograde and dangerous," and warned they would erode the information commissioner's powers, make less information public, "and increase government's ability to cover up wrongdoing, shield itself from embarrassment and control the flow of information to Canadians. Why have the Conservatives broken so many promises? The government's discussion paper contends that "concerns" have been raised about Reid's proposal...
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