Sunday, March 02, 2008

While we're calling for investigations...

Diane Francis calls Shawinigate the 'Mother of all Scandals', and declares that it deserves a "full-blown Parliamentary investigation" - Ottawa: probe Chretien, Shawinigate:


...This one involved millions in government money in the 1990s spent by the Liberals in the riding, and to partners, of former Prime Minister Jean Chretien.
It’s timely again because on Friday the Ontario Appeal Court ruled in favor of the RCMP which has requested documents from the National Post obtained from a confidential source involving its Shawinigate series of stories.


The series dealt with potential conflicts of interest involving federal grants and loans to local constituents and a hotel called Auberge Grand Mere... (During Chretien’s tenure as Prime Minister there were years when his riding got more Ottawa money than did the Province of Alberta. Or half of Africa. That’s a scandal in itself.)


But the latest twist was reported on Saturday in the Post:
“The [court] ruling is the latest round in a nearly seven-year legal battle that began when the RCMP asked the National Post to turn over the material sent by a confidential source to reporter Andrew McIntosh.”
“The source alleged the document was a copy of a Business Development Bank of Canada loan authorization for a hotel in Mr. Chretien’s riding. The bank, the Prime Minister’s Office and a lawyer for Mr. Chretien were sent copies of the document and insisted it was forged.” That’s a scandal in itself.)

( . . . )

The press freedom issue is important but really a sideshow. Whatever happens on that front, Shawinigate has never been plumbed by an inquiry and the public deserves to know what went on inside the Chretien regime.


Something tells me Warren's not going to like this one.


* * * *
Update: CTV - Paper ordered to surrender 'Shawinigate' documents.

More at Jack's Newswatch.

And lost in all the uproar of various scandals was the passing of this important piece of legislation - finally: It took Canada long enough to raise the age of consent. (Winnipeg Free Press)


18 comments:

Roy Eappen said...

Remember Beaudoin was fired by those working on behalf of pseudchretien. The courts gave a judgemnet to Mr Beaudoin.
The grits seem oblivious to their own lies and criminal behaviour. Its their sense of entitlement

Brian said...

I agree with Diane Francis , and I really question the Liberal thinking on the Cadman issue.

I mean regardless what happens it will throw the spotlight onto Chretien , especially now that the National Post info about Shawinigate has been turned over to the RCMP per the latest Ontario Supreme Court ruling last week.

If I were a Liberal strategist the last thing I would want to do is raise the issue of scandals.

Anonymous said...

Warren already doesn't like this story, and he thinks the greatest people elected were Chretien and McGuinty. Wish he had a comments section, I'd love to tell him what we think of the both of them. Then I'd get sued though.

Anonymous said...

Don't you think though that media like the CBC, CTV, The Star and the Globe&Mail will try downplay this?

Möbius said...

Full disclosure: I had a nice dinner at the Shawinigan restaurant in question. Great service, good food, much beer.

I must admit that I didn't realize I was paying for it twice, through my taxes.

Anonymous said...

what will tell us plenty is if the Liberals and the media back away from the whole Cadman circus this week, simply because no inquiry will leave their legacy unchallenged....guaranteed!

Joanne (True Blue) said...

Warren already doesn't like this story, and he thinks the greatest people elected were Chretien and McGuinty. Wish he had a comments section, I'd love to tell him what we think of the both of them. Then I'd get sued though

Sometimes he allows comments.

Anonymous said...

I wonder what the Quebec law society thinks of this? . . .hmm. . . "Crotch-rot" is still practicing law. I would !*!*LOVE*!*! to see him lose his license to pratice law (even temporarily) over this How humiliating! Of course it would be the duty of all blogging conservatives to make sure the story got as widely sread as possible. Including internatioanlly. !!!! HA!!!!

paulsstuff said...

What they should do is what Liberal's wanted to do to Mulroney. Get his tax records and see when he declared the money from the sale of the golf course. He said he thought he got paid in 1993 but it was really 1999.

And let's put it in perspective folks. His riding, not the province, his riding, received more government funds than entire provinces. I think there was a canoe museum and water fountain in there somewhere.

paulsstuff said...

Off topic, but Canadian blues/jazz great Jeff Healey has died at 41 years of age. Had the pleasure of meeting him a few times, wonderful guy.

Anonymous said...

No reason we can't do both. Crotch-rot was the biggest crook (possibly in Canadian history). Destroy his reputation & jail him.

Joanne (True Blue) said...

41! Wow, that's young. What did he die of, Paul?

paulsstuff said...

He battled cancer most of his life. I believe he actually was dignosed with the same type of skin cancer as Cadman. Two young kids. They just posted the story at CTV.

He did a lot to further the careers of young musicians by having them perform at his nightclub. And his knowledge of both jazz and blues was amazing.

Anonymous said...

more than likely if a complete investigation were launched on all parliamentarians we would have only the house speaker and maybe not even him ....hey by the way while we look loath and look for our shining light ...http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3513585,00.html some things are so trivial ...Katou

Joanne (True Blue) said...

Paul, that's so sad. Here's the link for anyone who's interested.

Anonymous said...

WOW ...that is sad ...My condolences to all friends family and fans ...we have lost a great one for sure ....katou

paulsstuff said...

Met him and Dan Ackroyd the same night. Been to his club quite a bit. Always friendly and hospitable.

Back to the topic of your post Joanne. I believe when the ethics commissioner ruled Chretien did nothing wrong, he was unaware of exactly what Chretien and his cronies had done to try and destroy Frances Bedouin. Come to think of it, it was quite similar to what was done to Alan Cutler, the Adscam whistleblower. Anyone notice a pattern here?

Anonymous said...

Warren's into another diversion today...today he's playing divide and conquer and setting up the perfect storm for a show-down between that squeaky clean McGuinty and dirty blue Flaherty.

worth a read.

As a primer to how Warren works may I recommend borrowing his two books at your local library? It's all there folks.

lessons learned and available for all!