The Party Press on the Sponsorship Scandal

 Grand Illusion of Free and Fair Elections
in Canada Comes Tumbling Down

- TML Daily, April 22, 2005 -

"Throughout 2005, the interest of Parliament, the media, and the nation was held by the Gomery Inquiry into what became known as the 'sponsorship scandal.' By May, the impact of the scandal nearly brought down the minority Liberal government on a non-confidence vote held on the budget. In November, when the first Gomery Report was released, the parliamentary opposition coalesced to force the minority Liberal government into a general election. On January 23, 2006, the election results provided evidence of how voters may have viewed the scandal when the Liberal Party lost the election.

"Until the issue hit the front pages in early 2004, the federal government sponsorship program had been in operation quietly, but not altogether anonymously, since 1994. Under intensifying media coverage and in tandem with two critical reports from the Auditor General, the program slowly evolved into one of the most prominent and extensive political scandals till then in Canada. The program's tentacles reached as high as the Prime Minister's Office and included the Liberal Party, two former prime ministers, ministers of the Crown, Quebec advertising agencies, and Justice Gomery himself. While under investigation by the Gomery Commission, the program was the subject of an RCMP inquiry and criminal prosecutions for fraud." - Kirsten Kozolanka, Canadian Journal of Communication.

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A beleaguered Paul Martin addressed the country yesterday evening to plead with Canadians to consider him an honourable man. His notion of claiming responsibility was to repeat that he is in no way implicated in the "wrong-doing" associated with the sponsorship scandal and those who were will be punished. Martin referred to his actions of closing down the Canada Information Office and subsequently Communications Canada as his first act on assuming the leadership of the Liberal Party and becoming the de facto Prime Minister of Canada. These are proof of his sincerity, he said. We should presumably forget the statement by his Finance Minister Ralph Goodale at the time that they were being closed down: "I think we have come to the conclusion that [the sponsorship program] ... has outlived its usefulness and it's time to move on."

To further prove that he is an honourable man, Martin cited his establishment of the Gomery Inquiry, the recall of Alfonso Gagliano from Denmark and other such actions. For good measure, he told his audience that he, who cut his milk teeth on his father's lap in the very same Parliament buildings, could not possibly do anything to tarnish its reputation.

Leaving aside the fact that Jean Chrétien himself went to great lengths to honour his own political legacy to cover up the scandal he created, Martin's claims convince only the most politically naive that he is taking responsibility. On the contrary, these actions are widely perceived as an attempt at damage control. Now, not only has this system of damage control completely unravelled, but it is taking on a life of its own. In spite of this, Martin continues to believe he is still in damage control mode. It is a miscalculation which more likely than not will sooner or later end his political career.

Far from still being in damage control mode, everyone awaits the "Heidi Fleiss List" -- the names of the "lawyers, engineers or accountants from major firms" referred to by Benoit Corbeil, the former director-general of the Liberal Party's office in Montreal, to say nothing about "many of the lawyers who have since been named to the bench." All of them will yet rue the day that Canada's inbred political caste is so small.

Furthermore, the problems facing Martin and the Liberal Party presumably don't end there either. What will be the response of Elections Canada when the extent of the corruption of its much touted system of "free and fair elections" finally sees the light of day? Will it apply the letter of the law and disqualify all the Quebec candidates of the Liberal Party from ever running again? What of those who got elected in Quebec in the 2000 election? Will all of them lose their right to ever run again or even vote? When even a humble independent candidate who doesn't submit her or his returns on time faces such draconian measures, what is to be made of a Liberal Party which hides its financial activities from Elections Canada? Stating in an interview that funds from the sponsorship program were funnelled back to senior members of the Liberal Party, Corbeil said: "I took the bills [from Jean Brault of Groupaction Marketing] and with that, I paid people, without declaring it [to Elections Canada]."

What about the $1.75 cents per vote the Liberals gleaned as a result of Chrétien's reform to election financing laws? Will the Liberal Party pay all that money back to the federal treasury as well, besides all the sponsorship funds the Bloc Québécois is demanding be immediately be put into a public trust pending the outcome of the Gomery Inquiry?

The revelations coming out of the Gomery Inquiry indicate that the Liberal Party will do more to bring down the grand illusion that elections are free and fair in Canada than anything hitherto seen by Canadians.

This article was published in

Volume 49 Number 7 - March 2, 2019

Article Link:
The Party Press on the Sponsorship Scandal :  Grand Illusion of Free and Fair Elections in Canada Comes Tumbling Down - TML Daily, April 22, 2005

    

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