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The Mulroney / Schreiber / Harper Scandal
This
page is a collection of items posted on
YayaCanada regarding this matter. The most recent is at the top.
March 2008
Schreiber
denied extradition
appeal - but will
hang around anyway
YYC: Yes, we need him for a public inquiry.
Reader letter to Toronto Star:
From: "Brian H., Toronto
To: <lettertoed@thestar.ca>
Cc: YYC
Sent: Thursday, March 06, 2008 1:23 PM
Subject: Schreiber denied extradition
appeal
Dear Toronto Star Editors,
In your March 6 'Schreiber denied extradition appeal' piece,
(http://www.thestar.com/News/Canada/article/310009)
the statement is made:
>Mulroney sued for libel and won a $2.1-million settlement from the
>previous Liberal government in 1996 after the RCMP alleged he was
part of >a kickback ring in the Airbus transaction.
Unless I am mistaken, there was never a court decision on this as your
use of the word "won" implies.
(http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/story.html?
id=cf0a96f9-27a2-4789-a4c7-c8971c526006&k=92710)
Rather it seems, the Libs folded like a cheap suit in what looked to me
at the time like a very convenient, and for Mr M very lucrative, way to
make the whole thing go away. I think you owe your readers a note of
clarification as your piece is misleading as it stands. No aspect of
this affair has been tested to completion by the courts as your piece
implies.
As I have communicated to you on a previous, yet unpublished occasion,
it seems to me that the situation has now 'developed legs' (by Mr M's
own admission) to the point where Mr M should be compelled to surrender
these taxpayer dollars into escrow pending a final resolution of the
issue and should only be returned to him upon absolute and unequivocal
exoneration by the courts or a public enquiry.
Name/Address/Phone
YYC: Excellent point made - Mulroney didn't "win"
his law suit, the Liberals settled. Big diff. They just gave him
a big pile of the tax payers' money that he could add to the money
given him by Schreiber.
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February 2008
CP:
Opposition suspects PM backing off public inquiry into
Mulroney-Schreiber affair ... Tories steadfastly insisted an
inquiry can't start until the ethics committee issues its final report,
which is expected to take another couple of weeks.
TorStar: No need for
public inquiry, Mulroney now says
"Mr. Mulroney wants to turn the page," his lawyer, Guy Pratte, said ...
YYC: Haha. I bet he does. If you've read this
page in full you know that the first time he bellowed for a public
inquiry I said he planned on it never happening. As reader Brian
H. says (in the Comments Section
Feb. 29), Mulroney is saying, "Nothing to see here, move along
folks."
January 2008
Canwest:Mulroney
tax records may be subpoenaed as committee chair talks tough
NDP MP Pat Martin, who at one point in the Dec. 13 hearing told
Mulroney point-blank that he did not believe his explanation, did not
accept Mulroney's charge of disrespect. "No, in fact we treated
Mr. Mulroney with every bit of respect we could muster considering the
load of hooey he was telling us. I thought he got a fairly easy ride
when you look at his story."
CJAD: Mulroney accepted
cash envelopes at 24 Sussex Brian Mulroney's former chief of staff
says not only was the ex-Prime Minister accepting envelopes of cash in
hotel rooms in Montreal and New York, but he was also getting them at
24 Sussex Drive.
Norman Spector will reveal everything he knows about the
Mulroney-Schreiber affair before the Common's Ethics Committee in two
weeks...
Post: A
letter from Mulroney's lawyers to MP Paul Szabo [Chair, Ethics
Committee]
In conclusion, allow me to remind you that Mr. Mulroney has cooperated
fully with the Committee and to assure you that he intends to continue
to do so to the extent that legitimate questions remain to be examined.
But, given the way the proceedings have unfolded thus far, any
reasonable observer must conclude that very serious breaches of
fairness have occurred and that a lack of appearance of impartiality
and instances of actual bias already jeopardize the reliability and
objectivity of the Committee's ultimate report.
NPost:
Commons committee unfair say Mulroney lawyers At his appearance
before the parliamentary committee, Mr. Mulroney acknowledged taking
the money, but insisted he had received $225,000.
Mr. Schreiber, in earlier media interviews, had always pegged the
amount at $300,000, and suggested in his testimony that he had as much
as $500,000 to offer the former prime minister for his assistance in
business ventures ranging from the Bear Head armoured vehicle
manufacturing facility to a pasta company.
"We're trying to resolve that," said Mr. Szabo. "Certainly the tax
returns would be helpful."
Canwest:
Schreiber, Mulroney criticized for not providing requested documents
" ... it appears that there is a substantial amount of ... just paper."
December
2007
Rabble/Salutin:
All I want for Christmas is my inquiry Because it's a relief
to get confirmation of your sense of reality in the face of denial by
the respectable sources ... Maybe the inquiry should continue
accumulating evidence till the authorities stop insisting there's
nothing to see.
YYC: "The authorities" bedanged. The inquiry should be held
because Mulroney wants it - remember? He's rented bells to wear
and everything. Or maybe he hasn't, eh? After all,
he's known to be the kind of person who keeps the truth bottled up
inside. Maybe he doesn't reely, reely want the inquiry. Maybe he
believes Harper will get him out of it - do ya think? Harper does
believe the "office of the Prime Minister" must be protected, possibly
at any cost to the country.
WaterlooRecord:
Johnston could choose no-inquiry option, PM says Revelation comes
during Harper's year-end interviews. Asked directly whether Johnston's
mandate includes the no-inquiry option, Harper replied in the
affirmative.
So now we know for certain
that Steve is as expert a fibber as his mentor Brian. The whole country
was led by him to believe that there would be an inquiry and that
Johnson's job was to "set the parameters" for it. Now he tells us that
he gave Johnson permission to say no inquiry needed. Oh, the
suspense, eh?
CTV:
Judge dismisses Schreiber suit against Mulroney
The judge said that Mulroney lived and worked in Montreal and there "is
no reason to infer that he was to do, or that he did, anything in
Ontario."
YYC: Score one for "BriTan" *. He
figured he couldn't be prosecuted in Canada for something he did
through a Swiss bank account. Would a Quebec court see it differently?
* The name of the Swiss account
Dead men tell
tall tales ...
StarPhoenix:
Mulroney
treading mud
The money was a fee for him to travel the globe on Schreiber's behalf
... Mulroney says he visited with former Russian president Boris
Yeltsin and former French president Francois Mitterand ...
YYC: The fact that Mulroney cited dead men to show he
provided services for monies received tells us plenty.
As does the fact of no records, not
even of the accounting from when he finally, finally paid the
taxes on the money. Would he have paid up had Schreiber kept
quiet? Of course not.
It would appear that it isn't really illegal to
avoid paying taxes in a timely manner and destroy your records, as the
rest of us self-employed Canadians have been led to believe it
is. Does this mean I can put a match to those boxes of paper I
keep in case I'm audited? No, this is probably only okay for high
profile crooks - er, PMs.
Ah well, maybe Mulroney's fellow politicians
are satisfied with what he didn't say, but it's comforting to know, if the
comments of Toronto Star readers are any indication, that the
percentage of gullible dimwits among "ordinary" Canadians is quite low.
See, the thing is, these are not the only
"mistakes" Lyin Brian made over the years, and people with intact
memory find it hard to believe pretty much anything he says. As
the following article states, " Mulroney’s Mistakes were
legend; his legacy is a
plethora of mistakes":
PEJ:
The Many Mistakes of the Right Honourable Prime Minister Brian Mulroney
Even journalists who would like to
believe in him admit that he's
not giving the right answers (TimesColonist).
The Times Colonist writer hopes for no further
inquiry
because it pains him to see Mila Mulroney looking "awful".
Yeah, that's a good reason, allright.
It doesn't seem to occur to him that it
doesn't pain Mulroney to exploit his own family as much as he deems
necessary. To him, it's their job to bolster him,
not his to shelter them. Bring on the public inquiry, Brian bellows,
all the while he's doing his best to gain support for dispensing with
it by extracting every drop of sentimentality he can.
Can you imagine living with this
space-sucking, boozy ego who strives to make everybody else feel guilty
no matter what he himself does?
It's ironic that we're supposed to see the
value of "protecting the office of the Prime Minister" as Harper puts
it, while he hopes and prays that Mulroney will get away with having
sullied it.
Brian has dragged a lot of people into the mud with him, even
corpses. And
"ordinary" Canadians are expected to foot the bill to get at the truth,
since it won't be readily forthcoming from him, nor will Schreiber tell
everything he knows as long as a certain reticence serves to keep him
in Canada.
YYC:
Airbus?
Yes ... no... maybe ... yes ...
TorStar:
Why politicians seek out the rich
The obscure story of Bear Head Industries illustrates one of the many
perils of elective office ... "because they've always got one eye on
the day after an electoral defeat. A good job in the wings is a relief
when, as is the case with many career politicians, they have no
marketable skills"
YYC: And they need financial and image-building backup to get
elected in the first place
CTV:
Schreiber's lawyer calls committee a 'circus'
The high-profile lawyer said the process involves MPs asking questions
without really caring what the answers are.
YYC: I guess what he means is that they want to hear what
Schreiber
has to say no matter what that is, rather than having the questions
slanted to elicit certain answers, or disallowing certain questions
altogether. Lawyers are more comfortable with the latter
approach, but
maybe the committee wants the whole truth? One would naturally
hope so.
CTV:
MacKay denies knowing Schreiber before Thyssen job
YYC: It would appear that MacKay's daddy never cautioned him
that he would be known by the company he worked for.
No, Petie says he took the parental role and
warned his father not
to associate with Schreiber - but not before taking advantage of that
iffy friendship to land a job he very likely wouldn't have gotten
otherwise.
What a collection of amoral sleaze we have
trying to take control
of this country. It's almost like a military coup.
Everybody is
connected with the arms industry!
An opinion
piece
in the National Post works hard to disinfect Harper. Two things the
anonymous writer does not consider: 1) Petie has already shown you can
land a good job without ever laying eyes on your benefactor, and 2)
third party back scratching is generally a reciprocal activity.
November
2007
SGoods:
Mulroney scandal throws Harper off-stride Election not possible as
long as Mulroney/Schreiber/Airbus affair is centre stage.
YYC: Do Parliamentarians spend all their spare time digging
up
dirt on one another? Or do they hire private eyes for that? It's
funny
how scandals can lie dormant for years and only surface at or near
election time, and not in order to serve the cause of justice and
accountability to the people.
Still, it's nice to see Mulroney and Harper a
little less smug.
EdSun:
What are ordinary Canadians to think?
One day, Stephen Harper orders a public inquiry to probe the $300,000
in cash that wheeler-dealer Karlheinz Schreiber paid to Brian Mulroney
in various hotel rooms soon after the former prime minister left office
in 1993.
A week later, Conservatives and their media cheerleaders are all but
screaming for Schreiber's extradition to Germany before he has a chance
to give a word of testimony to the inquiry here.
YYC: The very fact that Mulroney thumps his chest and bellows
for
a public inquiry is proof enough for me that he doesn't expect it ever
to happen.
In case you're wondering what hotel rooms, see
Ron Saba's trailer for an upcoming movie: "Three
Hotels & the Envelopes"
Here's
another
kind of speculation:
CTV:
Expert thinks Schreiber won't talk at hearings
Author William Kaplan, an expert on the Brian Mulroney-Karlheinz
Schreiber affair, predicts upcoming hearings by a parliamentary
committee will be a "gong show."
YYC: Why, he'll be a veritabobble* "sound
effects sensation"! (video)
Thanks to Pogo
for
"veritabobble" and other neat words that got incorporated into my
vocabulary at a very young age.
LondonFreep:
Mulroney, Schreiber to testify - Liberal MPs say if they don't
appear before the [ethics] committee voluntarily, they can be compelled.
YYC: Will this foil Harper's roadblocks a little bit? - you
know, getting Schreiber deported, appointing a pre-inquiry study ...
It's nice that the committee stopped scrapping
long enought to get this thing going.
CanWest:
Chretien has second thoughts about Mulroney libel settlement
In his book, Chretien said he was personally relieved when the
government settled out of court, saying it spared Mulroney, the police
and "the reputation of all our public institutions and officials."
YYC: Now see, this is what is wrong with government.
Nowhere in
Chretien's (or Harper's) concern are the people who footed the bill.
No, the illusion of "the office" needs to be protected, otherwise
"ordinary" people might discover they are equal to or better than the
so-called "leaders".
Petty
crimes
vs. "collossal mistakes" ...
SGoods:
Foul smell rising over a country called Canada Dziekanski tasering,
detainee treatment, RCMP problems, and Mulroney-Schreiber threaten
nation's reputation.
YYC: Read it and weep. Then hop over to the Harper Index
and find out how the man Harper appointed to advise on the terms of a
public inquiry - that may or not actually occur sometime down the road
- is not independent at all, and that in fact, Harper
is in a conflict of interest.
CanWest;
Mulroney admits taking cash a 'colossal mistake'
YYC: So there's at least one
thing we know
Schreiber isn't lying about. Muroney's spokeperson says whether or not
taxes were paid on the income is nobody's g-d business. He
wishes! Chances are virtually nil that Mulroney declared it on
his tax form.
CanWest:
Government believed Mulroney so settled, Chretien says
Chretien said the government was unaware of the payments and believed
Mulroney when he testified in the lawsuit that he had no dealings with
Schreiber other than the occasional cup of coffee.
YYC: When a Prime Minister has occasional cups of coffee with an
arms dealing influence peddler don't you gotta what's up with
that? Do politicians
ever just have coffee?
Ah, but does it matter, since "the
Harper government does not appear willing to intervene in ...
Schreiber's extradition to Germany in order to guarantee his testimony
before the Mulroney inquiry." (Canwest)
Especially since Schreiber says he won't talk
if deported.
Some cloutish people are known as king makers;
it seem Schreiber's talent is king breaking, if the scandal
surrounding Germany's Helmut Kohl and Schreiber's involvement in
it - added to what he appears able to inflict on Mulroney and Harper -
can be seen as an indication.
Apparently, Mulroney went to receive yet
another of his cleverly
engineered awards at a dinner that had been completely sold out, only
to find that many tables had noticeably empty chairs and might have had
even more but for some judicious padding. The Calgary
Herald says: "Several
guests confided to me they were last-minute invitees and didn't really
know why they'd been chosen, except to squish a seat cushion."
The Allcons stayed away in droves, so
desperately afraid are they
that some of Mulroney's cooties might jump off onto them. Even a
Liberal attendee pulled
a Chavez at the sight of a reporter heading toward him.
Reuters:
Canadian court rules against German arms dealer
A spokesman for Prime Minister Stephen Harper said the government would
not backtrack on its assurances to keep Schreiber in Canada for the two
weeks.
YYC: (Underlining
mine) Are
you laughing sardonically? The proposed public inquiry can't
begin
until after the Waterloo president submits his advice, sometime in
January.
But that's not all - the National
Post
says: "The Ontario Court of Appeal yesterday placed Karlheinz
Schreiber's pending extradition to Germany in the hands of the federal
Justice Minister ..."
That's Rob Nicholson, who "was a parliamentary
secretary in the government of Brian Mulroney" (See next item for list
of main players) He can delay the departure or hasten it.
Such a weighty responsibility! What to do, what to do ... Do you
suppose he's considering finding an excuse to have Schreiber terminally
tasered?
CanWest:
Schreiber-Mulroney affair: the main players Ultimately it will fall
to Nicholson to decide whether Schreiber is sent to Germany to face
criminal charges.
GlobeandMail:
Schreiber refuses to talk if he's extradited Deal-maker
issues threat upon losing second-to-last appeal
YYC: He hopes this will keep him here, of course, but you can
bet Mulroney and Harper want him gone - someplace, anyplace but here.
TorStar:
Canada's
new government haunted by its old ghosts Harper is trying
hard to insulate himself. He has ordered his ministers to have no
contact with the former prime minister. But it's not that easy. As
Mulroney often liked to say: "You dance with the one that brung you."
YYC: I've always been grateful to Mulroney for exposing the
sleazy underbelly of what we call government. It's saved me a lot of
disappointment.
NPost:
Mr. Mulroney has welcomed the full-fledged
public probe as the only way to clear his good name ...
Since when is Lyin' Brian a good name?
GlobeandMail:
University of Waterloo president given broad mandate to shape public
inquiry His lengthy résumé includes many federal and
provincial assignments in a range of bureaucratic roles, but nothing to
prepare him for the political maelstrom of the Mulroney-Schreiber
assignment.
I don't know. This doesn't sound "independent" to me.
There isn't a university president alive who isn't beholden to
somebody, and this one reached his pinnacle quite quickly. His resume
shows he has imbibed the fruits of the
"trough". Wunner who "brung" him to the prom.
Oh, oh ... This can't be good. He's a
Harvard grad, and corporate up to the gills.
CTV:
RCMP launch Mulroney-Schreiber review
A spokesperson for the RCMP says the review will be done to determine
if there should be a formal investigation. [And Harper says]: "We will
be
asking that the independent third party, who will be named shortly,
give us terms of reference for a full public inquiry"
YYC: One of the best stalling tactics an organization has is
to
strike a committee to look into a matter. But it must be the right mix,
even if just a committee of one. A lot of
people will have to be interviewed regarding not their wisdom, but
their loyalty. Better still, someone who can be judiciously
blackmailed.
One thing for sure, it won't be Stevie
Cameron (ViveleCanada)
Karl Schreiber's extradition
hearing begins tomorrow. Which has given rise to one of the
dumbest questions ever: "If
the central witness in this whole public inquiry is gone, what kind of
public inquiry would you have then if you only have sort of half the
story coming out?" The only answer to that is "Duh".
HarperIndex:
Mulroney-Schreiber affair threatens PM's credibility After
campaigning for restitution of Liberal sponsorship spending, Harper
will be pressed to make his mentor repay libel award.
YYC: It's very likely that any good and useful buddy of
Lyin' Brian was also on Harper's friendly list until he became a
liability by landing in jail. A strong indication of the social
closeness between Mulroney and Schreiber is in the letter
of consolation sent by Mila Mulroney to Schreiber's wife when he
was arrested.
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