Bribery or Breach of Ethics???

LUCAS OLENIUK/TORONTO STAR

PM Harper has a lot of explaining to do about this Affair..

Update: March 4 10 am: PM Harper give notice to the Liberals and Party Leader Spephan Dion that he will sue for Libel if the Liberals would not retract from their Website their post claiming that the PM had knowledge of the supposed Bribery and it did took Place..Cadman widow in a subsequent interview, said that Harper, then an opposition Leader met with her after the vote and assured her that no offer was made..here is the details of the Update..

A biography of Cadman, to be published this month, charges that two Conservative party officials offered Cadman, who was critically ill with cancer, a $1 million life insurance policy if he voted against the then-Liberal minority government in a confidence vote on May 19, 2005. If he had voted with the Conservatives, the government would have fallen, forcing an election.

Background: Chuck Cadman was a British Columbia MP who remained Independent after the Re-Uniting of the Conservatives, who split up into splinter Parties after the debacles of Elections past. During the Confidence vote in Paul Martin minority Liberal Government in May 2005, his vote was crucial for the survival of the Government, thus arising to the Scandal that the Conservatives, in the opposition at that Time was trying to lure the Independent MP to their side to defeat the Government triggering an Election with an alleged Offer of a $1 Million in Life Insurance Policy. Cadman voted for the Liberal, thereby assuring the survival of the Government for another few months..Cadman died July 9. 2005, less than two months after the vote.

Now the Liberal Party, the main opposition, who have been propping up the Minority Conservative government to avoid an early Election nobody wants, is re-examining it’s strategy of supporting the Government and instead openly musing of toppling it as the Members find it hard to support the Government after the allegation.

The allegation was supported by Cadman’s widow, who herself now is a candidate for the Conservative Party and was also echoed by his daughter, which also followed her Mother’s statement that her father told her of the same before he died and added that she so proud he didn’t not take the offer...

Confronted with the allegation PM Harper, who had an Interview with the Author of the Book which script been released in Advance, even suggested that he knew of the offer but has this to say:

And an interview with the book's author, Vancouver journalist Tom Zytaruk, Harper, who was opposition leader at the time, even suggests he knew of the offer.
Asked about the insurance policy, Harper said, "it was only to replace financial considerations he might lose due to an election, okay? That's my understanding of what they were talking about."

All personalities involved in the allegation do not deny that they had been meeting with the MP, but denied about the offer of Life Insurance Policy or any monetary incentives..(pls note that according to the experts in the field of insurance, Chuck Cadman at the time was uninsurable for having terminal cancer)

It is considered an offence under the Criminal Code to offer a politician an inducement, financial or otherwise, to influence him or her.

The Opposition Liberals already written the RCMP to look after the allegations and the Force will review the contents of the letter and will make up the decision to proceed with the investigation or not...

For more of the Brewing Scandals check the pages of the Toronto Star

And for those who may have doubts that the tale maybe too good to be True how about this column by tom walkom

Tackling Official Corruptions...the Canadian Way..

Federal Auditor General Sheila Fraser..started the ball rolling after an article in a Daily Paper Globe and Mail questioned the Government in what it suspected as "fraud" in Sponsorship Program...




Tackling Official Corruptions, the Canadian Way..

Corruptions by Elected Officials and Public Servants are happening in almost Every Government and Country anywhere. It is endemic to most countries where Governments are weak and to some where Poverty and Widespread Inequity are the realities of everyday existence. But First World countries are not exempt, not even in our case to which a few years ago the now famous Sponsorship Programs Scandal was exposed and made every Canadian wondering why such corruptions of the scope unimaginable would ever happen in this Country so Proud of its Transparency and Accountability of the people who were elected to led.

What is the Sponsorship Program?

It was the Federal Program set up in the wake of 1995 Quebec Sovereignty to help promote Federalism and the money was supposed to be used to raise Canada’s profile in Quebec.

How the Scandal was exposed?
In 2002 the PM of the day, Jean Chretien was forced to address the issue when the Globe and Mail, a major daily paper, Under the Access of Information Act, tried to find out why the Government paid $550,000 to the advertising firm Groupaction Marketing for a report that could not be found, and no one at the Public Works ministry or the ad firm could answer it.

PM Chretien called on federal Auditor General Sheila Fraser to look at the matter. She found out a lot to launch a full investigation and ask the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) to get involved as well..

Short of two years later, Fraser released her explosive report, and not shy to use the words such as “appalling”and “scandalous” to describe how the Liberals abused the system.

She found out that money in the amount of $100 millions were paid to various communications agencies in the form of commissions and fees and said the program was basically designed to generate commissions to the said companies than to benefit Canadians.

That Public Works officials “just broke every rule in the book” awarding contracts to the company Groupaction which was paid millions. Details of federal Auditor General Sheila Fraser’s report can be checked here (auditor’s report 2004)

PM Chretien had already resigned after 11 years and Paul Martin replaced him as the Party Leader and PM and Martin promptly called on Justice Gomery to conduct an Inquiry and promised to resign if there was evidence that he knew of the frauds in the program. Final reports didn’t implicate Paul Martin, but he resigned after the Liberal lost the government after the election that was called when the Parliament lost the confidence of the Government due to the Scandal.

Justice Gomery's Reports phase 1 and 2 can also be read here..phase 1 and phase 2 and final report

Important note: Both PM Paul Martin and former PM Chretien appeared before the Inquiry to give testimonies under oath. For PM Martin it was the first time since Canada was Six Years old that a sitting PM appeared before a Public Inquiry.

The RCMP was also involved, investigating allegations of fraud beginning in May 2002.

Aftermath:

Justice Gomery's reports were conclusive and painted the picture clearly of what happened to the program. Who were responsible and also recommended to the Government of measures to strengthened accountability in governance.

RCMP criminal investigations resulted in Criminal Charges and Convictions for the officials and business people involved in frauds and conspiracy.

Former PM Chretien against his strong protestation was implicated lightly as not diligence in his watch, but absolved of any direct knowledge of fraud committed by his party members and officials. He was a Good Prime Minister and still other than this scandal during his Eleven Years as PM, will be remembered as One Great Leader and a very distinguished career for his decades of government service in many other positions.

PM Paul Martin was not implicated as having any knowledge of the ongoing scandal while Finance Minister during the time.

Although he lost the government due to the scandal and resigned as party leader, he came out clean and his reputations untarnished. Another Good Leader who didn’t have much chance to prove himself, but proved it in another capacity as Former Finance Minister, bringing Canada to a healthy budget surplus, that is still enjoyed by the current government, from deficit in previous years. A very successful businessman in his private life, a well respected family man and he has done a good job to his country and people in public and private.

Thus, we have concluded one of the biggest scandals in our history as a nation born some 140 years ago (1867). We may have some in the future, but I believe that if it ever happens again, we have the resolve to face up to it and have the courage to deal with it squarely and in our own way bring each and everyone to proper resolution...

For indepth details and related items you may go tothis site

And for more readings here arethe top 10 scandals in Canadian Political History...some were just scandals and remained scandals while others were later proven more than just scandals, some funny, some serious..

Political Scandals, We Too Have them...

Premier McGuinty, Left, with Citizenship Minister Mike Colle during happy days.

Provincial Minister of Citizenship Resigned Amid Scandal!!!

The Provincial Election is set for October 10 and the Government of Premier McGuinty (Liberal Party) just lost its First Cabinet Minister due to Scandal.

Citizenship Minister Mike Colle resigned after Auditor General Jim McCarter slammed spending Controls on the Grants to Multicultural Groups as "among the worst that we’ve seen" after finding out that Grants were doled out without proper Paper Works and in some instances Much More than what the Groups were asking for. And the Election Campaign will Start in a little more than six weeks from now.

Colle's resignation comes despite earlier attempts by the government to defuse the controversy over the grants in the face of a series of Toronto Star revelations and opposition party attacks.
But the Government could find a little comfort as the Auditor ruled out favouritism in awarding Grants to community Groups.

A very interesting case the Auditor highlighted, the Ontario Cricket Association asked for a grant of $150,000 and instead got a $ 1 million and more than half of the Money still sitting on the bank. And the Auditor General added, "they clearly did not need a Million Bucks, this isn’t Cricket".

He suggested the furor over the grants, made in the last two years with no formal application process or criteria, was a case of the government shooting itself in the foot.

"We found no evidence that any organization received a grant because it had political ties. However, in some cases those ties did exist, and, when this is combined with a process lacking openness and most of the normal accountability controls, it can create the perception of favouritism if the organization ends up obtaining a grant," McCarter wrote.

Both the Progressive Conservatives and New Democrats vowed to remind voters about the Liberal imbroglio as the election approaches

.
Premier McGuinty quickly apologized to the People of Ontario and this what he had to say:

The lax oversight was "clearly not in keeping with the respect our government must have for every dollar taxpayers send us," McGuinty said yesterday.

"I want to apologize to the people of Ontario for not living up to the high standards that we have set for ourselves and that they are entitled to expect from us. I want Ontarians to know we are implementing all of the auditor's recommendations."

Judgement Day will Come October 10 if the "voters of Ontario" will accept the Premier’s Apology or Not.

For this voter it is not an issue, because I belong to the opposition party. And the Premier was very slow in acting about this issue that has been lingering for a while after it was Revealed by the Media and the Oppositions.

Read more here:
http://www.thestar.com/News/Ontario/article/240471

For star editorial:

http://www.thestar.com/article/240319

Something Good: A 64 years old Senior, 5'7" took down two robbers, both over 6 feet tall and young at a pharmacy, after he stumbled into Crime in Progress as he was filling up his Prescription. Roy to the Rescue... check this link...

http://www.torontosun.com/News/TorontoAndGTA/2007/07/28/4374963-sun.html