Prime Minister Stephen Harper will delay a public inquiry into the Mulroney-Schreiber affair until after parliamentary hearings on the matter are over, prompting opposition accusations of stonewalling.
In a report released yesterday, special adviser David Johnston recommended a relatively narrow inquiry into cash payments that German-Canadian businessman Karlheinz Schreiber made to former prime minister Brian Mulroney in 1993 and 1994 — but not into the "well-tilled" terrain of government deals such as the 1988 sale of Airbus planes to Air Canada.
Mr. Johnston, president of the University of Waterloo, left open the option of waiting until after the Commons ethics committee hearings, and possibly shrinking the inquiry's mandate then.
"After reviewing the report and consulting Professor Johnston, the government has decided to convene a public inquiry once the House of Commons standing committee on access to information, privacy and ethics has finished its hearings," Mr. Harper said in a statement.
The opposition immediately charged that Mr. Harper is putting it off until after a crucial confidence vote on the 2008 budget, expected to be tabled in February or early March, that could trigger an election.
The committee plans to hold hearings into late February, ending with new testimony from Mr. Schreiber and Mr. Mulroney. It would likely take months more for a yet-to-be-named inquiry commissioner to commence hearings.
"There are potentially embarrassing deadlines ahead. If they can punt this late into the spring, it opens up horizons [for them] in the event of confidence votes," New Democratic Party MP Thomas Mulcair said. "I'm not a seer, but I'm also not an ostrich."
The Bloc Québécois and NDP suggested yesterday that the committee might speed its work, but Liberals on the committee argued that the scope of the public inquiry was too narrow and therefore the committee might need to do more, not less.
Although Mr. Johnston's report indicated the government might decide an inquiry is not necessary after the parliamentary hearings, Mr. Harper's communications director, Sandra Buckler, insisted an inquiry will definitely go ahead with a mandate based on the "framework" set out in the report.
Mr. Harper promised to hold an inquiry after Mr. Schreiber, who has fought an eight-year court battle to avoid extradition to Germany on fraud and bribery charges, alleged in an affidavit that he met Mr. Mulroney just before he left office as prime minister, and struck an agreement to work on business deals together.
Mr. Mulroney has admitted accepting $225,000 in cash payments from Mr. Schreiber in 1993 and 1994, including one when he was still an MP. Mr. Schreiber says the total amount was $300,000.
Mr. Johnston found no evidence of anything criminal in those transactions, but said questions linger about whether they were appropriate.
However, he said the new elements do not justify delving back into the allegation that "bribes were paid to Mr. Mulroney in respect of Air Canada's deal with Airbus Industrie."
The RCMP has investigated that extensively, and later reviewed the cash payments, he reported. "I would not recommend terms of reference that charge a commissioner today with going over this well-tilled ground," he wrote.
Opposition politicians criticized that assessment, saying the millions of dollars in secret commissions paid on government deals with companies represented by Mr. Schreiber have to be examined.
"The issue of this whole payment was something that the RCMP failed to discover when they supposedly investigated everything," Liberal MP Brian Murphy said. "That's why we're here, aren't we?"
Mr. Johnston recommended that the inquiry delve more narrowly into why the cash payments were made, whether they were proper given the "constraints" of laws and ethics codes governing MPs and ministers, and whether new rules should be imposed on senior government figures after they leave office.
Mr. Mulroney's silence before last month's committee hearings only heightened suspicions, Mr. Johnston found.
"The concerns of many Canadians arose from the fact that a former prime minister took large cash payments from someone now implicated in questionable transactions …" he wrote. "The suspicions raised by these cash payments were compounded by Mr. Mulroney's silence on the matter."
Mr. Mulroney's spokesman issued a statement that merely said he has taken note of the decision to wait until the committee hearings are over.
Mr. Johnston also found nothing improper in the fact that letters sent by Mr. Schreiber to Mr. Harper, which included reference to some new allegations, were not forwarded to the prime minister, but suggested that an inquiry might clear the air on that issue.
