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Adscam: The Sponsorship Scandal 

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Commission of Inquiry into the Sponsorship Program and Advertising Activities

Gomery phase 1 report

Gomery Transcripts

Anti Corruption.ca

Gomery phase 2 Report: Recommendations

   

Gomery challenges the PMO

OTTAWA - The growing concentration of power in the Prime Minister's Office must be challenged because it is threatening the very democracy that Canadians enjoy, retired Justice John Gomery says.  (Toronto Star)   MORE:  Cut number of political aides in PMO: Gomery   Canada on road to 'one-man government'

 

Bid to quash Gomery report uses e-mails

OTTAWA - The e-mails, obtained by CanWest News Service, were recently filed in Mr. Chrétien's ongoing effort to have Judge Gomery's report quashed by the Federal Court of Canada on grounds of alleged bias.   (CanWest)  

 

Gomery mulled misconduct letter

OTTAWA - Justice John Gomery’s letter of warning to Jean Chretien in May, 2005 said an allegation of misconduct against the former prime minister was being considered in Gomery’s final report which would tie Chretien to untendered 1995 pre-referendum contracts including one with Lafleur Communications for an outdoor advertising campaign in Quebec, a transcript of a private meeting reveals.  (Ottawa Citizen)     Chretien's legal team files more documents

 

AG accuses senior civil servant of major abuses

OTTAWA - Federal policing and security agencies are ethically challenged from top to bottom, while the government continues to come up short when awarding contracts and managing its expenditures, according to the government spending watchdog.  (CanWest)   PREVIOUS:  Fast and loose on the public dime     RCMP asked to investigate over bilked funds    Security agency employees lack confidence in whistle-blowing programs: AG   Highlights from the report   Treaties come at a price   Relocation contract competition stacked: AG   Health Canada regulation falling short: AG

 

More criminal charges likely

MONTREAL - Five people connected to the sponsorship scandal are likely to face criminal charges, says the lawyer who was chief counsel for the Gomery commission.  Bernard Roy, who questioned witnesses at Justice John Gomery’s probe into the federal sponsorship program, said Tuesday that plenty of evidence came out at the inquiry to justify the charges.  (CP)  PREVIOUS:  More sponsorship scandal charges possible

 

Court overturns former BDBC president's dismissal

MONTREAL - The Federal Court has overturned a Liberal cabinet decree firing former Business Development Bank of Canada president Michel Vennat, according to a statement released Wednesday afternoon.  (CanWest)  

 

Sponsorship lawsuit grows to $63M

OTTAWA - The federal government will spend about $665,000 in lawyers fees alone - plus court costs - in order to recoup the $63 million it says was lost in improperly awarded contracts related to the federal sponsorship scandal.  (CanWest)  PREVIOUS:  Tories to sue Liberals over adscam: report   Tories refuse to pay AdScam bills   Tories, NDP aghast at payment to Pelletier  

 

The scandal that went away

OTTAWA - The Paul Martin government, bracing last fall for Justice John Gomery's scathing sponsorship scandal report and a possible snap election, played down opposition questions suggesting the emergence of another potentially explosive federal ethics controversy.  (CanWest)   MORE:  Federal agency's contracts suspicious    Consulting and Audit Canada     Audit hints Grits dodged bidding

Gomery didn't control media spin

MONTREAL - Judge John Gomery   was under no obligation to protect the reputations of those called before him during an inquiry into the sponsorship scandal, a federal government lawyer said Wednesday as he debated what evidence should be allowed in an application for a judicial review of Gomery's final report.  (CanWest)     PREVIOUS:  Gomery focused on facts, lawyer argues   Showdown brewing over Gomery report    Chrétien & company at work to rewrite history   Gomery in court to fight Chretien's challenge

 

Ad exec staying behind bars

MONTREAL - Ad man Jean Lafleur, who is facing 35 fraud charges related to the sponsorship scandal, will remain incarcerated until at least next Thursday.  Lafleur's bail hearing was put off today and the next court proceedings will take place.  (Toronto Star)  

 

Witnesses changed their story at sponsorship inquiry

OTTAWA - MPs went behind closed doors to decide whether to pursue perjury charges against half a dozen politicians and bureaucrats who said one thing at the Gomery inquiry and another when they testified before the Commons public accounts committee.  (CanWest)

Key sponsorship figures tell MPs they didn't lie

 

Gomery accepts PM's 'right' of rejection

OTTAWA - Mr. Justice John Gomery raised no objection Thursday as some of the key proposals in his report into the sponsorship scandal were shelved by Prime Minister Stephen Harper.  “It is his right. I can only make recommendations,” Judge Gomery said in an interview.    PREVIOUS:   Harper pledges accountability act won't dilute government    2006 Bill C-2   The Whistleblowers Bill and FAIR   Second crack at Gomery reports coming

 

Ad exec Brault gets parole after five months in prison

MONTREAL - Jean Brault, the disgraced advertising executive snared in the $250-million federal sponsorship scandal, has been granted parole after serving only five months of his 30-month sentence. (Gazette) 

 

Gomery fights release of sponsorship commission e-mails

OTTAWA - Gomery's lawyers recently filed his notice of appeal at the Federal Court of Appeal after Justice Max Teitelbaum ruled in June that any e-mails received by the commission regarding prime minister Jean Chretien, his chief of staff Jean Pelletier, former public works minister Alfonso Gagliano or the Prime Minister's Office between Sept. 7, 2004, and Aug. 25, 2005, should be turned over to the lawyers representing the men.  (Ottawa Citizen)   

 

Coffin gets 18 months in jail

MONTREAL - Advertising executive Paul Coffin was sentenced to an 18-month prison term in a Quebec appeals court on Friday for his role in defrauding the federal government out of $1.5 million in sponsorship funds. (CTV)   RELATED:  Morselli, sponsorship scandal figure, dies

 

Former Liberal minister sues Ottawa

OTTAWA - Claiming he was fired by former Prime Minister Paul Martin's administration and asked to make it look like a resignation, former Canada Post president Andre Ouellet is suing the federal government for $3.2 million.  (CanWest)

 

No place for politics, top justice tells Harper

OTTAWA - With Stephen Harper's Conservatives set to name a new Supreme Court judge, Canada's chief justice is warning against tainting the process with politics because the court is not a "mirror" of Parliament. (The Gazette)   MORE:  Is the Chief Justice afraid of change?  McLachlin should stop playing politics    Lawyers collected millions in fees for sponsorship probe, documents show

   

He was simply following orders

QUEBEC CITY - Charles (Chuck) Guite says he was just following orders when he doled out millions of taxpayers' dollars to ad agencies in return for little or no work on the sponsorship program.   Guite lays the blame for the scandal directly on his higher-ups -- former minister of public works Alfonso Gagliano and former prime minister Jean Chretien.   (CanWest)  

Payback time

Guite's powers 'god-like'

Guité guilty on all fraud charges

PQ knew cash illicit - probe

Judge says question 'not rocket science'

Gomery gives tips on political interference

Contracts rubber-stamped, Guite trial hears

Sponsorship program existed before referendum

Ad exec feared he'd be killed if he blew whistle

Guite jurors admit bureaucratic overload

Groupaction went off half-cocked, court told

Guité found guilty, sent directly to jail

Why should we ever trust the Liberals again?

Government takes action to eliminate the costly and ineffective long-gun registry

Auditor: 55 Bay's lease bilks taxpayers

Time for government gouging to stop

CanWest AG 2006 Report

Liberals hid costs of gun registry, Fraser says

AG targets the taxman

AdScam man 'feels shame'

Brault asks for forgiveness 'from society'

Officials withheld info from Gomery, says new book

Gomery slams Chrétien in new book

Gomery proposals win some praise, some criticism

Gomery urges overhaul of federal government

Canada may face a $1B legal penalty

His troubling conduct

Ad man's $1.6M payback rejected

Ad man Jean Brault pleads guilty to fraud

Ad man pleads guilty to pilfering from taxpayers

Shift powers to restore trust in government: Gomery

HP Canada repays $146M to Ottawa in scandal

Cut PM's power: Gomery

Sponsorship effect seen in survey

New questions raised over Mulroney's ties

Swiss bank accounts

OTTAWA - Karlheinz Schreiber's former accountant says he was present in 1986 when bank accounts were opened in Switzerland which he was told were being set up to eventually receive Airbus commissions intended for Brian Mulroney and Frank Moores, a parliamentary committee was told.  (CanWest)

Schreiber files lawsuit against Mulroney

Government afraid of Airbus inquiry, Schreiber charges

Schreiber loses last bid to avoid deportation

Airbus affair

The Schreiber files

Money, trust and spin

Request by 'anybody' could lead to new Airbus probe

Karlheinz Schreiber   Brian Mulroney

Dingwall gets $418,000 in settlement

OTTAWA - The federal government has paid David Dingwall, the former president of the Royal Canadian Mint, a compensation package for his forced resignation.  The arbitrator, George Adams, ruled Dingwall's resignation last fall was involuntary and therefore the government has a legal obligation to pay him.  (CTV) 

Audit finds nothing wrong with expense claims    

Dinged by Dingwall - Part II

Harper sends Himelfarb to Italy

OTTAWA  - Alex Himelfarb, who lost his job as the country's top bureaucrat (clerk of the privy council) with the advent of the new Conservative government, has been named ambassador to Italy.   

'Mr. Fix-it' gets plum diplomatic posting

Senate Entitled to their entitlements

It's not our money

Getting to the bottom of the gum scandal

Gomery didn't finish job

A Liberal culture of impunity

Scandal-plagued program fuels sovereignist fire

Gomery lawsuit lawyers seek to ban testimony

Mounties vow to dig deep in sponsorship scandal

Mounties must get their men

Off with their heads

Gomery report fingers Chrétien

Whistleblower heroes of Adscam play the price

Martin refers Gomery report to Mounties

The Gomery Affair: Who's Who

Liberal sleaze laid bare

Government - government waste - go hand in hand

Justice John Gomery report lays blame with Chrétien, exonerates Martin

Gomery to single out top bureaucrats

Sponsorship scandal is referendum's legacy

The culture of entitlement

Sovereignty not an if, but a when?

Gov't says it has started disciplining over sponsorship

Liberals do such a professional job

Justice worlds apart

Bid-rigging - solved

Commons committee grills federal ethics czar

PM's sons to testify on CSL operations: report

Pollster paid by Chrétien's friend

Guité points finger in newly released testimony

AdScam tales ever more disgusting

Grounds for anger

Liberals set Commons calendar to avoid election

Ethics watchdog stops short of absolving Sgro

Transparency International

Grits have stars in their eyes

Gomery wants inquiry lawyer in federal cour

Following the money trail

Master crooks

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.   (Calgary Sun)

Adscam far larger than reported

Liberal drift?

The Gang's All Here

RCMP probe stirring pot

PM dismisses judicial appointment allegations

The Iceberg

Liberals' ethnic exploitation to be tested

Ban partly lifted, sponsorship details revealed

Jean Brault's testimony

Ad firm hid payments to Liberals, Gomery told

No 'smoking gun'? It's a cannon!

It's enough to make an Angel cry

Adscam shows system isn't working

Alex Himelfarb

Chrétien defiant

Chrétien defends Adscam

Martin and Chrétien inquiry testimonies at odds

“Mr Dithers” and his distracting “fiscal cafeteria”

Chrétien to deflect sponsorship blame

Top Liberals were in sponsorship loop: Guite

Ouellet says he turned Canada Post into success

RCMP make another sponsorship scandal arrest

Sponsorship money paid for sporting perks

Guite, Brault arrested in sponsorship scandal

Guite links Martin staff to spending scandal

Sponsorship Scandal Timeline

Blogs:

Andrew Coyne

Angry in the Great White North

Belmont Club

Being American in T.O.

Captain's Quarters

Instapundit

Small dead animals

Grits funnelled money to foundations

OTTAWA  - Auditor General Sheila Fraser is raising the alarm over billions of taxpayer dollars channelled into arms-length government foundations not subject to public scrutiny.

Canadian Foundations

UN Kyoto Protocol

Suspect worst of foundations

CIDA can't monitor millions in handouts, says AG

Grits continue to hide billions

 

Alfonso Gagliano