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Monday Oct. 24, 2005 |
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GOMERY TARGETS
CHRETIEN: THAT'S A SCOOP!
by Angelo Persichilli
THE HILL TIMES
“Gomery targets Chrétien team,” was
The Toronto Star
headline in a story last week. Wow, that was a scoop! And there was more:
“Justice John Gomery will report in less than two weeks that the Quebec
sponsorship scheme was a narrowly- held secret with broadly dangerous
implications for government integrity. ” Wow, another scoop! More: “But in
the first of two reports, Gomery will also conclude that controls to protect
taxpayers failed under political pressure, making it child’s play for rogue
civil servants to direct contracts to Liberal- friendly advertising firms.
”Wow, this is the third one.
Last scoop: “By focusing
tightly on those around Chrétien, the report both substantiates Martin’s
insistence he was out of the sponsorship loop and indirectly justifies his
decision to order an inquiry that has badly damaged Liberal fortunes,
particularly in Quebec”.
I have a lot of professional
respect for Jim Travers and I also regularly report on genuine statements
from unnamed sources because, most of the time, politicians only give you
bullshit on record.
Reading the story, however,
I was not able to find even the slightest qualification of the source. I
know that giving a hint might be dangerous for the source and, God forbid,
I’m one who would do everything to protect a source. I am sure that Mr.
Travers has had his professional reasons for not qualifying his source in
this particular story which was the line story in Canada’s largest daily
newspaper last Tuesday, and I respect that; however, this allows many to
wonder where the “scoop” is coming from: the Gomery circle? The company
printing the report? The Prime Minister’s Office? A story is only as good as
good the source is, but in this particular case we know nothing about the
source.
Putting aside those
considerations, I want to elaborate on the content of the “scoops”starting
from the headline: Gomery targets Chrétien team.
First point: Where is the
news? I didn’t see any.
Second point: Judge Gomery will report that “the Quebec
sponsorship scheme was a narrowly-held secret with broadly dangerous
implications for government integrity. ”Please, Mr. Gomery, tell us
something we did not know already. Taxpayers are paying top money for the
inquiry! Third point:
The Star
writes that the report will say that “controls to protect taxpayers failed
under political pressure, making it child’s play for rogue civil servants to
direct contracts to Liberal-friendly advertising firms. ”Again, didn’t we
know that? Wasn’t that what the Auditor General Sheila Fraser wrote a few
years ago without spending almost another $100-million? Last point: “The
report, ”writes
The Star,“
both
substantiates Martin’s insistence he was out of the sponsorship loop. ” I
need more time to elaborate on this one.
First, you have to keep in
mind that the inquiry was not designed to deal with the government rules in
giving contracts out; indeed it was designed to target only and exclusively
on the Public Works and Government Services Ads and Sponsorship Program.
We know that there are
questions about how contracts were handled in departments like Defence and
others, but Judge Gomery was given the mandate to focus on the sponsorship
program. In fact, when some witnesses were mentioning other contracts,
even within the Department of Finance, Judge Gomery stopped them and
reminded them that the inquiry was only on one subject: the sponsorship
program.
So, while Mr. Chrétien is
responsible for the sponsorship program, Mr. Martin is responsible for
drafting the mandate of the inquiry: an inquiry that will not shed light on
how the government handles all contracts, including, for example, Defense
and Finance, but only the sponsorship program, the one he says he has
nothing to do with.
Writes
The Star:
“By
focusing tightly on those around Chrétien, the report both substantiates
Martin’s insistence he was out of the sponsorship loop and indirectly
justifies his decision to order an inquiry that has badly damaged Liberal
fortunes, particularly in Quebec. ”Of course it does.
Was the mandate tailored to
do just that? The question is: was the inquiry called to deal with the way
the federal government deals (then and now) with contracts, or was it called
to exonerate Mr. Martin? By the way, exonerating Mr. Martin from what?
From knowing nothing about something that, as minister of Finance and one of
the most influential ministers in Quebec, was supposed to know? So, if Mr. Chrétien, the Prime Minister, did not know about the details, Mr. Martin, the minister of Finance, was not aware either, who is going to be
political responsible for all of it? I forgot: Alfonso Gagliano.
By the way, during the whole
inquiry, I heard about money over the table, under the table and money
flying all over the place; I heard about money pocketed by many companies
and people; however, I haven’t heard anyone telling the commission about how
much money Alfonso Gagliano pocketed.
From what I gather, Mr. Gagliano is now living in Montreal with the money from the pension he is
enjoying as former MP and former Cabinet minister (minus the money he is
spending on lawyers). Did I miss something? |
