Cartoons and Commentary
  Swiss account opened in '86
for Mulroney: testimony
Edmonton
Journal. Feb 15, 2008.
OTTAWA - Karlheinz Schreiber's former accountant was told in 1986 that bank accounts opened in Switzerland were designed to receive one-quarter shares of Airbus commissions intended for Brian Mulroney and Frank Moores, a parliamentary committee heard Thursday. Giorgio Pelossi, a key player in the Airbus affair, testified by teleconference from Switzerland before the Commons ethics committee, saying he knows now that the Airbus commission money, which he estimated to total about $27 million, was never funnelled to the Swiss accounts. Pelossi said he was invited by Schreiber to accompany him and Moores to a Swiss bank in Zurich when the accounts were opened. Pelossi recalled that Schreiber told him that Mulroney, the prime minister at the time, and Moores, a lobbyist and former premier of Newfoundland, would each receive 25 per cent of commissions involved in the $1.8-billion Airbus sale to Air Canada. When asked later to speculate why Schreiber never followed through with the Swiss bank accounts, Pelossi said it's possible the Canadian-German arms dealer was trying to avoid giving the accountant his cut of the deal, estimated at one per cent, by claiming the fictitious payments to Mulroney and Moores as expenses. Author Stevie Cameron, who has written books on Mulroney's dealings with Schreiber, later told the committee that Moores, lobbyists Fred and Gerry Doucet and Gary Ouellet received commissions from the Airbus sale. But she said she never unearthed evidence that any sitting Canadian politician received kickback money in the Airbus sale. Mulroney chokes back tears
recalling Airbus allegations
'All of a sudden, out of the blue, I'm a criminal,' former PM says Norma Greenaway. Edmonton Journal. May 14, 2009. A heavily edited version of Brian Mulroney's tax assessments was filed to a federal inquiry on Wednesday, showing he paid a total of $112,000 in taxes on the $225,000 in cash payments that he says he got from Karlheinz Schreiber. The decision to table the documents was aimed at addressing lingering questions about why Mulroney waited until 1999 to make voluntary disclosure to federal and Quebec tax authorities about the cash he says he received in 1993 and 1994 for work he did for Schreiber as an international consultant. The filing of the tax documents capped a day at the inquiry dominated by Mulroney's emotional and angry retelling of the "false" allegations the federal government made about him in the 1995 Airbus affair, and the devastation those allegations rained on him and his family. "All of a sudden, out of the blue, I'm a criminal," Mulroney said, referring to the letter the federal Justice Department wrote to Swiss authorities that, among other things, accused him of taking millions of dollars in kickbacks over the 1988 sale of 34 Airbus planes to Air Canada. "I am an honest man and the family is honest, too." The former prime minister described the allegations as a "criminal hoax" that still haunts his family. The morning session ended with Mulroney on the stand, fighting back tears and whispering "merci" when Justice Jeffrey Oliphant said he didn't need to hear any more about the painful impact the Airbus affair has had on the former prime minister and his family. Mulroney was in fighting form again for the afternoon session, during which he accused Schreiber of making outrageous and false allegations about him for the sole purpose of forcing this inquiry and avoiding extradition to Germany, where he faces fraud, tax evasion and bribery charges. The inquiry is charged with exploring the cash payments, why they were made, what Mulroney did to earn the money, and whether he made the business deal with Schreiber while he was still prime minister. Schreiber says he paid Mulroney to lobby on behalf of a proposal to build German-designed armoured vehicles in Canada; Mulroney says he was asked to promote the vehicles internationally as a superior peacekeeping vehicle. On the tax issue, Mulroney told the inquiry that although he waited five years to declare the income, his filings were completely within the law because he had not used the money, which he called a "retainer," as income. Mulroney said he didn't spend a cent until all the taxes were paid up. After that, he said he distributed the money to his "immediate family and extended family in Canada and the United States." Mulroney has testified he stored two of the cash payments in a safety deposit box at his Montreal home and the third in a safety deposit box at a New York bank. Today, Richard Wilson, the lead lawyer for the inquiry, will begin his cross-examination of Mulroney. Schreiber, who was a fixture at the inquiry until Tuesday morning, is in an Ottawa hospital recovering from emergency gallbladder surgery. He is expected to testify next week. Federal inquiry costs further $14 million May 21, 2009 Canadian taxpayers are on the hook for slightly more than $2 million to cover Brian Mulroney's legal costs at the federal inquiry into his financial dealings with Karlheinz Schreiber. The money has been earmarked by Ottawa under a special program designed to provide financial help for current and former elected and non-elected government officials facing litigation or forced to participate in commissions of inquiry. The former prime minister's lawyer, Guy Pratte, said Wednesday Mulroney is entitled to the financing under the existing policy and he decided to use it. As it stands now, the government has set aside $800,000 for his legal costs in 2008 and $1.25 million for 2009, Myriam Massabki, a spokeswoman for the Privy Council Office, said Wednesday in an interview. In a statement, the Privy Council Office said the program "recognizes that the provision of legal assistance to current or former Crown servants, such as former prime ministers, is essential to the protection of the Crown's interest, the fair treatment of its servants, and the effective management of the Crown." Pratte noted several government and former government witnesses who testified at the Gomery Inquiry into the sponsorship scandal had their legal costs covered by the same program. The money for Mulroney's legal bill is paid by the Privy Council Office, and is not part of the estimated $14 million the federal inquiry is expected to cost. Former Mulroney adviser Fred Doucet is the only party at the inquiry who applied publicly and got permission last year from Justice Jeffrey Oliphant to have some of his legal costs covered in the commission's budget. Although Pratte said he got word several weeks ago that his application for funds had been approved, news of the deal did not break until Wednesday, the last of Mulroney's six days on the witness stand. It is the second time taxpayers will be picking up the cost for Mulroney's legal battles. The former prime minister won a $2.1-million settlement in 1996 after he sued Ottawa for defamation for "falsely" accusing him of taking kickbacks in the Airbus affair. Mulroney's final testimony before Oliphant paved the way for the inquiry into his dealings with Schreiber to start winding down. The unknown at this stage is when Schreiber, who underwent emergency gallbladder surgery last week, will be well enough to return to the inquiry for a final round of cross-examination. His lawyer, Richard Auger, said the German-Canadian businessman is recovering slowly and steadily, but there is no way Schreiber will be back in action this week. Before Mulroney stepping down from the stand, Oliphant solicited his opinion on whether he felt he was treated fairly. "I want to assure myself before you leave, sir, that you feel, despite probing questions that may have been asked, that you leave here feeling that you've been treated fairly and with respect," Oliphant said. Though weary and visibly itching to leave, Mulroney paused long enough to say he felt he had been treated "fairly and with respect," that he didn't find the probing questions inappropriate, and to thank the judge for "your kindness." Jun 1, 2010 Oliphant said the former prime minister had failed to live up to a code of ethics his own government promulgated, a code he said "provides that public office holders have an obligation to act in a manner that will bear the closest public scrutiny, an obligation that is not fully discharged by simply acting within the law." And so ends Brian Mulroney's bid to haul his
reputation out of the mud of tawdry business dealings at the close of
his political career. What a sad coda to his nine years as Canada's
18th prime minister, a term whose substance actually served this
country and the world quite well.
Monday, Justice Jeffrey Oliphant wrapped up his $16-million inquiry into Mulroney's business dealings with Karlheinz Schreiber. Oliphant said the former prime minister had failed to live up to a code of ethics his own government promulgated, a code he said "provides that public office holders have an obligation to act in a manner that will bear the closest public scrutiny, an obligation that is not fully discharged by simply acting within the law." At the heart of the matter was $225,000 paid to Mulroney by Schreiber in cash stuffed into three separate envelopes -- money paid in return for lobbying internationally for a military vehicle Schreiber wanted built in Canada. One sum was paid while Mulroney was still an MP in 1993. Oliphant found the business dealings and the failure to disclose them was inappropriate. Some of the more serious allegations were not borne out, particularly Schreiber's claim that an agreement had been concluded while Mulroney was still prime minister. Furthermore, Oliphant had no mandate to find legal wrongdoing. But the nose-wrinkling odour that has risen for years off those envelopes of cash has been reconfirmed. What should Canadians conclude? Clearly, that we have a right to expect better of our politicians. If Ottawa does not act on some of Oliphant's recommendations about improving the rules, we will have every right to be cynical about the degree to which things have changed. But we should also remember that free trade, the battle against apartheid and even the tax streamlining of the GST are accomplishments that will and should outshine and outlast the ethical weaknesses detailed this week. Credit: Edmonton Journal |
