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1984: Brian Mulroney leads the Progressive Conservatives to power. Karlheinz Schreiber sets up International Aircraft Leasing (IAL) in Liechtenstein. Frank Moores and fellow Mulroney associates form Government Consultants International (GCI), a lobbying firm in Ottawa.

1985: GCI is hired by German companies, including helicopter manufacturer Messerschmidt-Bolkow-Blohm (MBB), which is negotiating a sale to the Canadian Coast Guard. Moores becomes an Air Canada director but leaves soon after because Airbus, bidding for a big contract, is another GCI client. Airbus also enlists Schreiber's IAL to help market in Canada.

1986: MBB's Canadian subsidiary, Messerschmidt Canada Ltd. (MCL), sells 12 light helicopters worth just under $27-million to the Coast Guard. The machines are to be manufactured in Germany and outfitted in Fort Erie, Ont.

1988: Mulroney wins second term. Air Canada awards much sought-after contract for 34 new passenger jets worth $1.8-billion to Airbus Industrie. Schreiber's old friend, Bavarian politician Franz Josef Strauss, dies.

1993: Mulroney leaves office, is succeeded by Kim Campbell and Liberals come to power with greatest landslide in federal history.

1995: After media reports surface regarding Schreiber's relationship with Airbus and the Air Canada contract, the RCMP has the Justice Department write to Swiss authorities seeking information about secret bank accounts. The letter names Mulroney, who finds out about the allegation and sues the RCMP and federal government.

1997: After a variety of revelations, the federal government settles with Mulroney and pays $2-million in legal fees but continues its investigation.

1999: Schreiber leaves Europe for Canada but is arrested on a warrant from Germany where he faces criminal charges. He hires Edward Greenspan to fight the extradition request. In December, the Mounties execute five search warrants issued by Judge James Fontana in relation to the Airbus investigation, including Eurocopter Canada, the successor to MCL. The warrants are sealed as are the orders to seal them.

January, 2000: Eurocopter lawyer Paul Schabas applies to Judge Fontana to break the seal and allow access to the information justifying the searches. Meanwhile, word of the search leaks out to Schreiber, Mulroney and Der Spiegel, which reports on it. The proceedings are subjected to a publication ban, and on Jan. 31 the judge dismisses Eurocopter's application.

February: The judge again refuses to unseal the information, and Eurocopter seeks a judicial review of his orders.

March: The review begins before Mr. Justice Edward Then in Toronto. Journalist Harvey Cashore shows up and is booted out. Eurocopter again demands access. Crown again says no. Hearing is adjourned.

June: RCMP applies yet again for permission to hold the thousands of pages of documents. Crown again insists the matter be kept secret.

December: Judge Then turns down the judicial review and extends the document detention another nine months but says he'll reconsider the secrecy issue in four months.

April 9, 2001: Lawyers for Mulroney, Schreiber, Moores and the CBC are notified of the secret proceedings and told the case may be of interest to their clients.

April 24, 2001: The expanded cast appears in court, and the Crown suddenly applies to have seal largely lifted from information that led to the search warrants.

April 25, 2001: The parties get to see the long-suppressed information.

April, 2003: RCMP concludes its eight-year, multimillion-dollar investigation into the Airbus affair without laying any new charges, providing a final vindication for former prime minister Brian Mulroney

November, 2003: The Globe reveals a secret trial. The lifting of the publication ban, at the urging of The Globe, sheds light on both a highly complicated legal saga and the murky world of big-ticket government transactions. Among the accusations: A German firm overrode angry protests from its Canadian executives and paid illegal commissions in the hopes of landing a lucrative federal government contract, according to RCMP allegations.

December, 2003: The RCMP spent more than $2.6-million on its eight-year Airbus investigation that concluded without any charges being laid, a document showed.

February, 2004: Journalist Stevie Cameron admitted being the confidential informant whose identity was protected by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in the Eurocopter helicopter-procurement case.