It seems that a previous Prime Minister of Canada took a dive and is now wriggling around on the canvas of scandal, again.
Brian Mulroney, our PM from 1984 to 1993 was involved in the decision of Air Canada to buy a large fleet of aircraft from Airbus Industrie. Legally, Mulroney sued and won a decision for unfair prosecution after he left office, so legally, he didn’t peddle influence as PM.
Except now, Mulroney, in a roundabout way, admits he received $300,000. Was it from someone, who was acting as a friend of a friend, to get Air Canada to buy a few billion worth of Airbus jets? We don’t know and Mulroney isn’t talking.
(Personal Disclosure: I’ve met Mulroney more than once, written speeches for him, and directed his 50th birthday video for the Party. It was in a previous career, unrelated to what I do now. I am not a member of any political party and frankly, would never join any political party that wants me as a member)
Brian Mulroney’s history as Prime Minister of Canada is regarded as "mixed", meaning people either thought he did many good things while in office, or was a "lying scumbag who destroyed our country". There really is no middle ground opinion about The Right Honourable Martin Brian Mulroney, PC, CC, GOQ.
In any event, with the $300,000 finally showing up, the media is starting to swarm. It would seem that the $300,000 arrived over a year and a half, in cash. Not cheques, or bank drafts, or gift certificates, just plain old bundles of cash in bags and suitcases.
Most people tend not to walk around with bricks of bucks in the pocket or purse. There are trades where it is normal to have a cabbage: High stakes gambling comes to mind, as well as street corner drug wholesale distribution.
There are urban-fable stories of drywall contractors ambling into the Jaguar dealership, just off the job site, covered in mud, sweat and dust, then whipping out a wad of cash to buy their car, cash, now, on the spot. For the rest of us mere mortals, we cut a certified cheque for that kind of expenditure.
Which makes the $300,000 in cash from Karlheinz Schreiber even more suspect. Cash has the benefit of not being traceable: It simply appears in the bank account, bumping the numbers upwards.
Mulroney’s 1997 settlement of the lawsuit against the Government of Canada, regarding unfair prosecution, was $2,100,000. I suspect the Government of Canada didn’t hand over bricks of cash to Mulroney’s lawyers. In all likelihood they used a certified cheque. A traceable, auditable, cheque.
The most damming evidence regarding the $300,000 is that Mulroney’s tax folks went back to Revenue Canada and amended his income for 1993 and 1994, to reflect extra income of some sort and to pay the tax on it. This makes one think that Revenue Canada was intensely investigating Mulroney and the amended returns were a way to keep the tax man at bay. One would also suspect that Revenue Canada had evidence of the payments, possibly from his bank records.
To quote Ronco ads on TV: "But wait, that’s not all!" Her Majesty’s Official Opposition is demanding our current PM, Stephen "Steve" Harper open an official investigation of the settlement with Mulroney. Harper is stonewalling so hard, he’s getting calluses on his hands from piling up the concrete blocks.
Which begs the question, Why? Yes, Brian Mulroney is a former Progressive Conservative Prime Minister, but the Progressive part of the party was taken out and shot four years ago.
There are no Progressives left, except in one place: The back rooms of the Conservative Party. Those people who were willing to grease up and work with the brownshirts of the Reform Party when the two parties amalgamated in the Night of the Long Knives, October 16th, 2003. There you will find those who owe much to Mulroney and will protect Mulroney until death or dementia set in.
They’ve got Harper onside, either by dragging Harper face-first across the PMO carpet and giving him wool sock static shocks to the nostrils, or reminding Harper that the only reason he is PM, is the backroom brokers who put the money and brains together to make it happen. If Stevie doesn’t play along, all the organization and fund raising skills at the Conservative Party War Room will suddenly disappear. Ergo, our current PM is piling up the stones for the wall.
Mulroney did some good things in office and did some things that were terrible. I used to be of the ‘mixed’ feelings camp, but now? We need some clarification from the man himself.
We won’t get it, but we need it.
RoadDave 