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.
***
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
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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