The Conservatives are going to court to stop their Liberal rivals from using a tape of Stephen Harper talking about a financial offer from his party to dying MP Chuck Cadman, charging that the recording was doctored.
Tory MP James Moore held a news conference Wednesday to present affidavits from two audio experts who say the recording contains edits - although Mr. Moore would not say whether they altered the meaning of Mr. Harper's comments.
But Dimitri Soudas, a spokesman for the Prime Minister, said in a later e-mail that the edits changed the meaning of Mr. Harper's comments, and that one of them inserted a question to misrepresent his answer.
Mr. Soudas said that change "creates a question that was never asked" about an allegation that his party had offered a $1-million life insurance policy to terminally ill Mr. Cadman, an Independent, and that Mr. Harper replied, "I don't know the details …"
"When the PM says he does not know the details, he is not answering a question about the insurance policy for [Mr. Cadman's wife]" Mr. Soudas said in the e-mail.
The man who made the recording, B.C. journalist and author Tom Zytaruk, Wednesday denied altering the tapes, calling the Conservatives' allegation a "desperate statement."
However, he said that he had stopped his tape recorder momentarily when he thought Mr. Harper had finished speaking. When Mr. Harper turned back, Mr. Zytaruk resumed taping. He insisted that neither he nor Mr. Harper said anything during the interruption.
"We're talking milliseconds here," Mr. Zytaruk told The Globe and Mail in Vancouver.
In Mr. Zytaruk's biography of Mr. Cadman, published this spring, the late MP's widow, Dona Cadman, said her husband was furious that two Conservative officials had offered him a $1-million life insurance policy in May of 2005.
Mr. Harper and the Conservatives have insisted that the only offer was to help Mr. Cadman with campaign expenses should he seek re-election as a Tory.
Mr. Cadman, who had advanced cancer, was a key swing vote in the spring of 2005, when both Liberals and Conservatives wooed Mr. Cadman for his support in a confidence matter that Paul Martin's Liberal government eventually won by one vote.
The Liberals have cited the interview as evidence that Mr. Harper knew of a financial offer. The Prime Minister has sued the Liberals for libel, but not Mr. Zytaruk nor his publisher. Mr. Harper is heard on the tape speaking of an offer "only to replace financial considerations he might lose due to an election."
The Tories Wednesday made a request to appear in Ontario Superior Court on Sept. 18 to seek an injunction to stop the Liberals from using the tape.
"It's very surprising," Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion said of the delay between the announcement and the court date. "When you want an injunction, you want it right away. And … beyond all that, any normal person accused of saying serious things says it's not the case, I didn't say it, it's not true, and here's what I said.
"In this case, Mr. Harper had never denied saying these words, is incapable of saying what the proper recording of these words would be."
In his news conference, Mr. Moore presented a thick binder including affidavits from audio experts Tom Olsen of New Jersey-based Owl Investigations and Alan Gough of Stratford, Ont.'s Integra View Inc. Both reported that the recording did not begin at the start of the conversation, and had two breaks that did not appear to have been caused by stopping and starting the recorder.
The experts analyzed copies of the 21/2-minute tape provided by the Conservatives after Mr. Zytaruk supplied a copy to Mr. Harper's lawyer. Mr. Gough declined to comment; Mr. Olsen did not respond to a telephone message.
"The Liberals are using a tape that has been doctored, that has been edited," said Mr. Moore, aiming his criticisms at the Opposition party, but repeatedly refusing to say whether Mr. Harper's comments were altered significantly.
But Mr. Soudas, Mr. Harper's press secretary, said the meaning was changed.
One of the breaks identified by the experts comes early in the recording, where Mr. Zytaruk asks Mr. Harper if he knows anything about the life insurance policy.
"I don't know the details. I know that um, there were discussions, um. But this is not for publication?"
Wednesday, Mr. Soudas wrote in an e-mail: "The edits change what the PM told Zytaruk during that interview. "… When the PM says he does not know the details, he is not answering a question about the insurance policy for Dona."
Mr. Zytaruk said he had not contemplated legal action, but that he is upset by the Conservative allegations.
"It's becoming more and more difficult to take the high road," he said.
With a report from Patrick Brethour in Vancouver
Campbell Clark