Fred Doucet, Brian Mulroney's former chief of staff, received a list from Air Canada detailing how many Airbus aircraft had been delivered to the airline in the early 1990s, contradicting Mr. Doucet's sworn testimony that he has “no knowledge at all about anything involving Airbus.”
The fax, as well as three letters written by Mr. Doucet, are the first indication that someone in Mr. Mulroney's inner circle expressed interest in the airplane sale before it erupted as a public scandal.
The airplane delivery schedule received by Mr. Doucet outlines how many Airbus A320s were delivered to Air Canada between 1990 and 1993. The date stamp indicates the former prime ministerial aide received the fax on Aug. 27, 1993, at 3:50 p.m.
At that time, Karlheinz Schreiber was sitting in the back of a limousine on his way to Quebec's Mirabel airport to meet Mr. Mulroney and pay him at least $75,000 in cash – a meeting that Mr. Doucet has previously acknowledged he arranged. That payment, as well as two other cash payments Mr. Schreiber made to the former prime minister shortly after he left office, are the focus of a coming public inquiry.
The fax, as well as three previously undisclosed letters written by Mr. Doucet, were supplied to The Globe and Mail and CBC's the fifth estate by Mr. Schreiber. The letters, which were written between 1992 and 1994, make a number of references to the airplanes, and in one instance Mr. Doucet uses a code word, “The Birds,” to describe the jetliners.
“Should the documents prove to be genuine, this new evidence has blown the whole Airbus affair wide open,” said Paul Szabo, a Liberal MP and the former chair of the House of Commons ethics committee, which last year launched a probe of the cash payments accepted by Mr. Mulroney.
After reviewing the documents for the first time last night, Mr. Szabo said he will consult with parliamentary lawyers because the material “raises questions of contempt of Parliament.”
When Air Canada announced it was ordering $1.8-billion worth of airplanes from Airbus in 1988, the European manufacturer quietly began paying millions of dollars in secret commissions – about 2 per cent per airplane – to a Liechtenstein shell company. The company, International Aircraft Leasing, was controlled by Mr. Schreiber, German authorities allege. By the time the last A320 made its maiden voyage across the Atlantic Ocean in 1993, Airbus had channelled about $20-million to the shell company. What happened to that money has never been explained.
Mr. Doucet's letters not only show that he was deeply concerned about the number of planes delivered but was embroiled in a feud involving the purchase with Frank Moores, the lobbyist and former Newfoundland premier enlisted by Mr. Schreiber to promote Airbus to Air Canada. The dispute over the number of planes was so caustic that Mr. Moores and Mr. Doucet stopped speaking to each other, the letters show.
The same day Mr. Doucet received the delivery schedule from Air Canada, he attached it to a memo and fired it off to Mr. Schreiber: “34 Airbus have been purchased and delivered to Air Canada according to the enclosed schedule. I sincerely hope that this evidence, many times stated before is emphatically and categorically relayed to F.M. [Frank Moores.]”
In February, Mr. Doucet was called to testify before the House of Commons ethics committee about his role in arranging the cash payments to Mr. Mulroney. He testified, under oath, that he knew nothing about Airbus. When he was asked whether he knew about the Airbus commissions, he replied, “Not at all.” When he was asked whether he was aware of any dealings Mr. Moores's lobbying firm, Government Consultants International, had with Airbus, he replied, “Not at all.”
Mr. Doucet declined to be interviewed. When he was told by a CBC producer there were documents that contradicted his testimony about Airbus, he replied: “So be it.”
Mr. Mulroney, who has denied any knowledge of the Airbus commissions and any role in the purchase of the planes, also declined an interview request through his spokesman. There is no mention of Mr. Mulroney in any of Mr. Doucet's letters.
Friends since university
It is not clear why Mr. Doucet would have any interest in the airplanes.
