Master crooks
Hells Angels expert calls Grits Canada's No. 1 organized gang
By Licia Corbella
April 12, 2005
The following is not a partisan political comment. It is a sorry fact. The Liberal Party of Canada is the largest white-collar crime organization in the country.
Yves Lavigne, a Toronto-area journalist and the leading civilian authority on the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club, agrees.
"AdScam makes the Liberal party the No. 1 organized crime gang in the country," says Lavigne.
Lavigne says the Hells Angels make more money in drugs and prostitution than the federal Liberals have likely stolen from taxpayers, but the Liberals take the cake when it comes to laundering money, fraud, extortion and forgery.
Even without the Gomery inquiry into the sponsorship scandal, Lavigne says information put out by Canada's federal Auditor General Sheila Fraser in 2003, paints a distinct picture of organized criminal activity permeating the governing Liberals.
"It's been pretty clear for a long time," says Lavigne, a best-selling author of several books about the notorious biker gang.
"In terms of being deceitful, it appears the politicians and bureaucrats involved in AdScam have hurt more people than organized crime ever has in this country," he says.
That's a pretty strong statement, one most Canadians likely wouldn't agree with, but Lavigne holds firm to his claim.
Besides the individuals whose reputations and lives the Liberals have tried to destroy -- including Olympic hero Miriam Bedard and Francois Beaudoin when he was president of the Business Development Bank of Canada -- Lavigne says Liberal criminality touches every Canadian.
"They (the Liberals) have hurt each and every one of us as taxpayers and voters by first of all stealing from us, but more importantly by undermining our faith in the political system," says Lavigne.
Add to that the boost to the separatist cause in Quebec and this scandal could cost us our very country.
And even some Liberals agree with Lavigne's take -- finally.
As the Sun's Rick Bell revealed on Saturday, Edmonton-area Liberal MP David Kilgour is considering crossing the floor to the Conservatives along with several other Liberal MPs.
"If you draw up a thing to make people want to vomit, this is it," Kilgour told Bell on Thursday. "You can mumble the line, it's about a few people, but there's really nothing you can say. The Liberal party is seen as looking on the public trust as a vulture looks on a dying calf. Here we are, a G-7 country, acting like a northern banana republic. What country is seen as more politically corrupt than us at the moment?" Kilgour asked. "Canada is no longer the shining beacon on the hill. We have fallen and the patience of Canadians is finished."
And indeed a recent Ekos poll would suggest that's true, though a full 25% of polled Canadians say they would still vote for the Liberals if an election were held now.
That's astonishing, isn't it? It's kind of like saying they would vote for the Mafia or the Hells Angels to run their affairs.
Lavigne says he also holds little faith in the RCMP to fully investigate the crimes committed by their Liberal masters, particularly since the once venerable police force is implicated in AdScam itself.
Later yesterday, those same sentiments were ex-pressed by the Conservative party's deputy leader, Peter MacKay.
From RCMP Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli's seemingly tight relationship with the former government of Jean Chretien, to its handling of peaceful protesters at the 1997 Asia Pacific leaders' summit in Vancouver, to the force's decision not to investigate Chretien's alleged actions in the so-called Shawinigate affair, there are numerous examples of RCMP bias in favour of the federal Liberals, said MacKay, not least of which is the fact the RCMP tried to launder $3 million from the sponsorship program by putting it into a secret, non-government bank account.
So, as you sit there wondering when the RCMP is going to start investigating the largest white- collar criminal organization in the country and the theft of perhaps hundreds of millions of dollars, whatever you do, don't hold your breath, but by all means, feel free to pinch your nose.