The Oliphant Inquiry: Old Whores and Cash Stuffed Envelopes
“There’s no whore like an old whore”. Those were the words of former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and reference to former Liberal Bryce Mackasey. Former Prime Minister John Turner had appointed Mr. Mackasey ambassador to Portugal. Mr. Mulroney made his famous remark and then promptly canceled Mr. Mackasey’s ambassadorship.
It is true that no man should be judged by his offhand comments not made for public consumption. I liked Mr. Mulroney as a prime minister. He was a friend to rural Canada and a friend to Canadian farmers as his agricultural policy reflected that over a period of years. However, there was always something uneasy about him and his relationship with German Canadian businessman Karlheinz Schreiber made me queasy. Today, May 31, 2010 Justice Jeffrey Oliphant released his report on the inquiry to the relationship between Mr. Schreiber and Mr. Mulroney. Not surprising, he said the relationship was inappropriate.
It was a long and sordid affair, in fact it stretches back even before editor John Gardner and I knew each other, back to 1976 when Brian Mulroney was attempting to capture the conservative leadership after the resignation of Robert Stanfield. It had to do with kickbacks to Airbus businesses and offshore money in leadership campaigns. After Prime Minister Mulroney had left office he even accepted cash of between $225,000-$300,000 in brown envelopes given to him from Schreiber in New York hotel rooms. Sordid doesn’t even seem to start to describe that. Cheap, dirty, stupid, taking cash money in brown envelopes from shady characters and not declaring it to revenue Canada didn’t add up to Justice Oliphant.
Justice Oliphant concluded that the reason Mr. Schreiber made the payments in cash to Mr. Mulroney was that they both wanted to conceal the fact that cash transactions have occurred between them. That is a crime that would put any of you poor plebs reading this in the slammer! What makes it even worse in this case is that Mulroney sued the federal government in 1997 over the there implication of him in this Airbus affair. He did not answer questions in a way that would’ve exposed this money coming from Schreiber. The federal government agreed to pay him $2.1 million for his legal fees and public relations costs. They also apologized to him.
Of course now it is quite obvious that the federal government made a mistake and that money should be returned to the taxpayers of Canada. This all took place over a period of 30 years and because these people were in positions in society and government, they are untouchable for many of those years. The only reason the truth has finally come out is that Schreiber sued Mulroney because he was losing everything. Prime Minister Harper called the inquiry and today we heard the results.
I cannot imagine receiving $225,000 in cash stuffed into brown envelopes alone in a hotel room and trying to keep that secret. I don’t know what it’s like to be Prime Minister of Canada, but I think if I were this type of behavior would be even more bizarre. The questions now is will the Harper government do the right thing and try to get the $2 million back from former Prime Minister Mulroney.
The Liberal party asked for that money back today during question period. The federal government responded by saying that it was too early to judge the Oliphant report. Cleary though, there is a lot of blame to go around here and the thirty-year nature of this deceit makes it even more troubling. Needless to say, if the Liberal, NDP or Bloc party want to make an election issue of this, I think it would catch fire. Political corruption at the highest level involving tax evasion and a lack of justice should make Canadians blood boil. Yes, “there’s no whore like an old whore”. Those words seem to be more telling now.
Some of you might say there is no law about being stupid. I would surely agree with that but in this case it was pretty clear to me that something unlawful was done by smart people who were trying to hide something. It’s a disappointment because all through the years I believe that Mr. Mulroney was a great Canadian despite what some of my good friends felt about him.
I actually met Mr. Mulroney in Chatham during the 1984 election campaign. I was very impressed by the man; in fact the whole country was as a few weeks later he won 211 seats in the federal parliament. Sadly, 26 years later his legacy has been cheapened. It’s also not over yet. There will be many recriminations to come.