Mulroney - Schreiber
March 21, 2008
Terms of Mulroney inquiry must be set by April 4
(CBC News) The Mulroney-Schreiber inquiry came one step closer to reality on Thursday, when the Prime Minister’s Office announced that a special adviser has until April 4 to set the parameters for the hearings.
David Johnston, the president of the University of Waterloo, has been asked to establish an inquiry mandate based on the recent investigation conducted by the Commons ethics committee, as well as a preliminary report Johnston has already prepared on the matter.
February 28
Mulroney would co-operate with public inquiry, lawyer says
OTTAWA - Brian Mulroney won’t appear again before a parliamentary committee inquiry into his dealings with businessman Karlheinz Schreiber and doesn’t want a public inquiry, but he would “co-operate fully” with an inquiry if he were called to testify, the senior counsel to the former prime minister said today.
February 26
(CBC) Mulroney refuses to appear before ethics committee
Brian Mulroney has refused to appear before the Commons ethics committee for a second day of testimony into his business dealings with Karlheinz Schreiber.
The former prime minister announced his decision on his personal website on Tuesday, but gave no details about why he would not oblige the committee’s request for further testimony.
February 25
(Toronto Star) Mulroney lied, Schreiber testifies
(THE CANADIAN PRESS) OTTAWA–Karlheinz Schreiber says Brian Mulroney’s December appearance at the Commons ethics committee was nothing more than a “smoke-and-mirror show.” A feisty Schreiber told the committee today that the former prime minister lied Dec. 3 when he testified that Schreiber had misled the committee.
Mulroney questions need for public inquiry into Schreiber affair
OTTAWA - Former prime minister Brian Mulroney is questioning the need for a public inquiry into his cash dealings with businessman Karlheinz Schreiber, saying no new evidence has been revealed during sessions into the affair by the House of Commons ethics committee.
February 14
Swiss bank accounts were for Mulroney and Moores, Schreiber accountant says
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 today.
Giorgio Pelossi testified by teleconference from Europe to the Commons ethics committee, saying he knows now that the Airbus commission money, which was estimated at about $20-million, was never funnelled to the Swiss accounts.
February 7, 2008
Former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney didn’t tell his trusted spokesman and long-time adviser about cash payments he had received from arms lobbyist Karlheinz Schreiber until more than six years after the fact, Luc Lavoie says.
Mr. Lavoie told the House of Commons ethics committee Thursday that he first learned in 2000 – through Mr. Mulroney’s lawyer – about three cash payments his client had received in 1993 and 1994 as a “retainer” from Mr. Schreiber. Mr. Lavoie said he was told the payments were worth “tens of thousands,” but did not know the total amount and did not ask. He said he didn’t learn the payments were in $1,000 bills and kept by Mr. Mulroney in a safe or safety deposit box until Mr. Mulroney’s testimony before the committee in December. More
Spector fails to live up to advance billing
The former bureaucrat hinted he had a smoking gun in the Mulroney affair, but it turned out to be a dud
DON MACPHERSON, The Gazette
As he had hinted he would, Norman Spector brought a smoking gun to the Commons ethics committee this week. Only it turned out to be a theatrical prop that produces a flash and a loud noise but fires only blanks.
Brian Mulroney’s former chief of staff had practically asked to be invited to appear before the committee, where his testimony would be immune from any lawsuit by Mulroney, to tell what he knew about the former prime minister’s conduct while in office.
Then, after he received his invitation, he dropped hints that he would show that Mulroney’s acceptance of large cash payments from businessman Karlheinz Schreiber after he was no longer prime minister was not the isolated “error in judgment” Mulroney had implied.
25 January 2008
The mobbing of Brian Mulroney
Mr. Mulroney has been investigated for at least 15 years by the RCMP; by an author with an apparent axe to grind; by the CBC and other media; and now by a Parliamentary ethics committee looking into his dealings with shadowy German businessman Karlheinz Schreiber. In a few months, a public inquiry will be launched by the Conservative government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper into Mr. Mulroney’s conduct, mostly after he left office and became a private citizen. None of these inquisitors has ever found evidence of a crime, and there is no indication there is any to be found. Yet the witch hunt goes on.
Former Mulroney chief of staff to tell MPs about cash at 24 Sussex Drive
OTTAWA - A fresh allegation that large amounts of cash arrived at 24 Sussex Drive while Brian Mulroney was prime minister is setting the stage for a stormy return of the Commons ethics committee next week. MPs on the committee are looking into the relationship between the former Tory prime minister and German-Canadian arms lobbyist Karlheinz Schreiber, who paid Mulroney three cash instalments shortly after he left office totalling at least $225,000.
The money - Schreiber says it was $300,000 - apparently related to lobbying work for a light-armoured vehicle maker, possibly for a Canadian manufacturing plant known as the Bear Head project.
But Norman Spector, a former chief of staff to Mulroney in the early 1990s, says he’ll be bringing documented evidence to Parliament Hill of other cash transactions.
19 January
Schreiber, Mulroney criticized for not providing requested documents
Jack Aubry, Canwest News Service
OTTAWA — The House of Commons ethics committee, which is holding hearings into the Mulroney-Schreiber affair, has been frustrated in its on-going pursuit of documents from the former prime minister and the Canadian-German arms dealer.
20 December 2007
TORONTO: SUIT AGAINST FORMER PM DISMISSED
(RCI) Ontario Superior Court has dismissed a lawsuit against Brian Mulroney brought by his former business associate, German-Canadian arms lobbyist Karlheinz Schreiber. The court ruled that it had no jurisdiction in the matter and that the allegations which Mr. Schreiber had made were not connected to Ontario. The lobbyist sued Mr. Mulroney for $300,000 plus interest. He claims to have paid the money to Mr. Mulroney in 1993 and 1994 to help him to win a contract to build an arms factory in Quebec and a pasta business in Ontario. Mr. Schreiber claimed that Mr. Mulroney never fulfilled his end of the deal. The lobbyist has used the court system to evade deportation to Germany for the past eight years. He was to have finally been deported several weeks ago, but the federal government suspended the deportation to allow Mr. Schreiber to testify about his dealings with Mr. Mulroney before the House of Commons ethics committee. In another development, Prime Minister Stephen Harper says he’ll leave it up to his special adviser in the Mulroney matter to decide whether a public inquiry is needed to probe the financial relationship between him and Mr. Schreiber. The prime minister called for one after he was named in one of Mr. Schreiber’s court documents. Many commentators and people asked in polls have said such an exercise would be pointless.
December 14
By IAN AUSTEN
OTTAWA — Former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney acknowledged to a parliamentary committee on Thursday that he had accepted large cash payments from a German-Canadian arms dealer and lobbyist beginning in 1993 and that his action showed “an error in judgment.” But he strenuously denied that the action was illegal.
A parliamentary committee had summoned Mr. Mulroney, who was prime minister from 1984 to 1993, but not when the payments began, to explain what he had done in exchange for the money, which was turned over to him, in $1,000 bills in hotel rooms, by Karlheinz Schreiber, an arms dealer and lobbyist. Mr. Schreiber is fighting extradition to Germany on bribery, fraud and tax evasion charges.
“My second biggest mistake in life, for which I have no one to blame but myself, is having accepted payments in cash from Karlheinz Schreiber,” Mr. Mulroney told the House of Commons ethics committee. His biggest, he said, “was ever agreeing to be introduced to Karlheinz Schreiber in the first place.”
Comment: Mulroney’s humble witness act
OTTAWA — Libeled, blackmailed, the subject of journalistic vendettas and attempted extortion, Brian Mulroney wanted to market himself as a victim who suffered his own “near-death experience” from perennial Airbus allegations.
But he knew it wouldn’t wash in a country where Mulroney polls as Canada’s most untrustworthy former prime minister. So he went contrite for four hours as a humble witness on the Parliament Hill he ruled as prime minister for nine years.
Less than a minute into his opening address, Mulroney threw his legacy before the court of public opinion and sought forgiveness for his wrongdoings. More
Mulroney’s six-year tax gap
In a four-hour session before MPs, the former prime minister acknowledges receiving cash from Schreiber, offers explanation for delay in reporting it, attacks the deal-maker’s credibility and changes his tune on a public inquiry
December 13, 2007
In the end, nothing sticks to Mulroney
John Ivison, National Post Published: Thursday,
Schreiber allegations are ‘completely false,’ Mulroney says
The former prime minister flatly rejected claims outlined in a November affidavit filed by Schreiber that he received the money as part of a lobbying deal struck during a meeting at the prime ministerial retreat at Harrington Lake, Que., on June 23, 1993, two days before he left office. More from CBC
We predicted that his days were numbered (see below), almost to the day (24 November), it seems.
(CBC) Mulroney spokesman quits
Luc Lavoie has stepped down as Brian Mulroney’s spokesman as the former prime minister faces allegations about his dealings with German-Canadian businessman Karlheinz Schreiber.
Lavoie says he gave up the duties about a week ago, in full agreement with Mulroney, because he’s too busy to devote the time required to do the job.
November 30
It just gets murkier - and accordingly, better theatre and great material for the pundits. DTN
John Ivison, National Post
OTTAWA -Karlheinz Schreiber would have brought tears to a glass eye yesterday. Appearing in front of the House of Commons ethics committee, he lamented that English is not his mother tongue and sought sympathy from committee members because he was brought to Ottawa in handcuffs from a detention centre in Toronto.
Mr. Schreiber played the innocent abroad part with aplomb — a credulous, tongue-tied, Borattype figure who has been duped by unscrupulous forces beyond his ken. But just as Borat is not a witless Kazakh journalist (he’s played by a Cambridge-educated, Jewish comedian), so Mr. Schreiber is not the village idiot. He is a former West German intelligence operative, who has long worked in the murky world of the arms trade, and has nearly run out of road in his fight against extradition to Germany on charges of fraud, bribery and tax evasion. As with Borat, the joke is really on those who take him at face value. More
24 November
WOOPS! Seems that the spokesman mis-spoke himself — again! Luc Lavoie’s days have to be numbered….
November 24, 2007
Mulroney’s rich prospects
Lucrative jobs in sight at time of cash payment
William Marsden, The Gazette
Despite Brian Mulroney’s claim that he took $300,000 cash from German-Canadian businessman Karlheinz Schreiber because he had run out of money, he was about to become a very wealthy man.
Throughout his tenure as prime minister, Mulroney cultivated close friendships with top executives in Canada and the United States, as well as with such political leaders as U.S. President Ronald Reagan and his successor, George H.W. Bush.
According to sources, this assured his smooth transition into a world of wealth and privilege, where his international connections would make him a sought-after lawyer and deal-maker.
Indeed, within months of leaving office on June 25, 1993, Mulroney was welcomed onto the boards of Fortune 500 companies. As well, he quickly began earning top dollar for speaking engagements and accepted a lucrative partnership at a prominent Montreal law firm that insiders estimate pays him at least $1 million a year.
November 21 Escalation of adjectives
Brian Mulroney has realized he made a “colossal mistake” in taking $300,000 in cash from German businessman Karlheinz Schreiber when the former prime minister left political office more than a decade ago and has regretted it almost ever since, his spokesperson said yesterday. … when Mulroney left politics in 1993, he had money pressures: He was the head of a young family with certain lifestyle expectations - and “not a rich man.” [Oh, that makes it all understandable. We submit that Brian Mulroney needs a new spokesperson - after all these years, Luc Lavoie has obviously exhausted his skills. Using the word ’silly’ was bad enough, but this explanation is calculated to infuriate everyone who has ever had money pressures, which presumably means at least 99% of the population.]
November 19
Mulroney thinks Schreiber cash deal ’silliest thing’ ex-PM has done: spokesman
Former prime minister Brian Mulroney admits that accepting $300,000 in cash payments from German-Canadian businessman Karlheinz Schreiber was the “silliest thing” he has ever done, his spokesman said. CBC New - silly? Is that the best he can come up with? Seems a tad cavalier to us.
November 16
We had hoped to avoid too much discussion of the current political scandal, but it is obviously going to generate considerable attention - and emotion -, so we are resigned to keeping a running commentary on it, especially now that it is attracting attention from abroad - and we couldn’t resist posting the illustration below from the Economist.
Haunted in Canada?
Nov 16th 2007 | OTTAWA
From Economist.com
ANY whiff of corruption is so much more potent when sniffed amid air as pure as Canada’s. Few countries have such a reputation for honesty. According to Transparency International, an anti-corruption activist group, Canada is seen as one of the least venal countries on the planet, ranked ninth cleanest alongside Norway. Yet its politicians have seen accusations of skulduggery. More
Keep focus of Mulroney inquiry narrow, Rae says
COLIN FREEZE Globe and Mail
November 19, 2007
while at the same time, it is reported (in the same newspaper)
Dion presses for broader Mulroney-Schreiber inquiry
Canadian Press
November 18, 2007
OTTAWA — Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion wants to make sure any public inquiry into Brian Mulroney and Karlheinz Schreiber also takes a look at Stephen Harper. More
Hold on tight!
Probe into Mulroney-Schreiber affair will be one wild ride
NORMAN WEBSTER , The Gazette
November 18, 2007
It’s not, Lord knows, as if David Johnston didn’t have enough to do. The president of Waterloo University was engaged in his usual routine of half a dozen tasks at once when the prime minister’s office called and asked him to take on the touchiest job in the nation - setting up an inquiry into the murky financial dealings of Brian Mulroney and Karlheinz Schreiber.
All that’s involved is money, power, reputations and possible criminality. Little things like that. Following on smartly from the Gomery inquiry, it should preserve Canada’s reputation for politics-as-scandal while other democracies plod through boring debates on public policy.
Johnston will do his job briskly and well. He has spent most of the past three decades in one of the most demanding occupations in our society - university leadership. In an age when college headmen have been dropping like flies, Johnston has spent eight years taking Waterloo to prime international status, a task he took on after 15 stellar years as principal of McGill.
And those are just his day jobs. His list of boards and chairmanships is fatiguing to read. It includes a stint as chairman of his alma mater, Harvard, a singular honour for a foreigner.
More? Johnston has been a non-partisan moderator of federal election debates. He also is a genius at fundraising, distressingly cheerful day or night, and not a bad hockey player.
Simply stated, this is a Canadian straight arrow (which used to be defined as someone who’s out doing what his parents hope he’s doing). When the call came from Ottawa, he tried to beg off - “but it’s hard to say no to the prime minister.”
Footnote: I know he said this because I was there, eating mussels in a Montreal restaurant, when he returned to the table from his final cellphone chat with the PMO. More
RCMP and public inquiry to review Mulroney-Schreiber affair
Jack Aubry, CanWest News Service
November 13, 2007
OTTAWA — The RCMP will look into fresh allegations concerning Brian Mulroney and Karlheinz Schreiber as Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced a public inquiry into the controversial relationship between the former Tory prime minister and the German businessman.
Harper told the Commons Tuesday that he has agreed to an inquiry into the Mulroney-Schreiber affair that resulted in a $2.1-million libel settlement from taxpayers to Mulroney.
Schreiber-Mulroney affair: the main players and for real junkies, the CBC offers an interesting backgrounder Parsing the Harper-Mulroney connection
