Liberals 'cannot escape responsibility'

MICHAEL DEN TANDT

Globe and Mail Update

November 1, 2005 at 10:19 AM EST

Ottawa — Prime Minister Paul Martin and most other senior ministers of the Liberal government did not know about rampant abuses and criminality in the Quebec sponsorship program in the late 1990s because details of the spending were kept secret by confidantes of former prime minister Jean Chrétien, the Gomery report concludes.

In a 685-page report released yesterday, Mr. Justice John Gomery excoriates the Quebec wing of the Liberal Party of Canada, saying the party "as an institution cannot escape responsibility for the misconduct of its officers and representatives."

In a section of the report entitled "Assigning Responsibility", Judge Gomery says that party officials who improperly accepted sponsorship cash and other political contributions "have brought dishonour upon themselves and the political party they were supposed to serve."

However, Judge Gomery concludes that, apart from Mr. Chrétien and former public works minister Alfonso Gagliano, the Quebec caucus — which includes Mr. Martin — knew little to nothing about the sponsorship program or how its funds were administered.

"There is no basis for attributing blame or responsibility for the maladministration of the Sponsorship Program to any other Minister of the Chrétien Cabinet," Judge Gomery writes, "since they, like all Members of Parliament, were not informed of the initiatives authorized by [former Chrétien chief of staff Jean Pelletier]."

The report adds: "Mr. Martin, whose role as Finance Minister did not involve him in the supervision of spending by the PMO or [Public Works Canada], is entitled, like other Ministers in the Quebec caucus, to be exonerated from any blame for carelessness or misconduct. Ministers are not responsible for what they do not know about the actions and decisions of the PMO or other Ministers, or about the administration of departments other than their own."

The report notes Mr. Martin's long-standing friendship and political association with Groupe Everest principal Claude Boulet and his wife, Diane Deslauriers. Judge Gomery writes that although Groupe Everest refrained from some of the worst sponsorship abuses, including exaggeration of time charges and over-billing, Mr. Boulay and his associates managed their business "in ways which, although they may not have been illegal, were at best dubious and at worst unethical."

The report notes that Mr. Boulay and Ms. Deslauriers and corporations they control were strong supporters of the Liberal Party, making political contributions between 1996 and 2003 of nearly $200,000, including $68,593 in 2000 alone. Mr. Boulay's volunteer work for Mr. Martin in his failed 1991 leadership bid, Ms. Deslauriers' fundraising for Mr. Martin in his riding, and their work for the Liberal Party, contributed to "a social friendship between the Boulays and Mr. Martin," the report concludes.

However, "there is no evidence that that friendship or the well-documented ties of the Boulay couple to the Liberal Party of Canada were ever invoked by Mr. Boulay in an attempt to influence government officials to direct business or contracts to Groupe Everest, nor is there any credible evidence that Mr. Martin ever had a hand in the awarding of contracts to Mr. Boulay's agency."

Indeed, Judge Gomery concludes that businessman Alain Renaud, who testified at the inquiry that he'd overheard a conversation in which Mr. Boulay discussed a sponsorship contract with Mr. Martin, was engaged in "a transparent attempt" to discredit him.

Throughout the scandal, the opposition Conservatives, Bloc Quebecois and New Democrats have said that Mr. Martin, as minister of finance in the Chretien government, had a moral and fiduciary responsibility to ensure that government funds were properly administered and spent.

Judge Gomery takes specific issue with this in the report, saying that the finance minister is responsible only for establishing "the fiscal framework within which overall government spending takes place." Although the finance minister is vice-president of the Treasury Board, "by custom the Minister of Finance does not attend Treasury Board meetings except when the President of the Treasury Board is unable to attend or when a matter to be discussed by Treasury Board is of special concern to the Department of Finance."

Judge Gomery then notes: "The Department of Finance and its Minister do not play a role in the oversight of expenditures made by other departments."

Finance Minister Ralph Goodale, whom Mr. Chrétien parachuted into Public Works in May of 2002 to clean up the sponsorship mess, also gets a positive review from Judge Gomery. The judge approvingly notes that within a day of becoming public works minister on May 26, Mr. Goodale had suspended the program.

"Within 24 hours of his appointment, on the basis of briefings from the Deputy Minister and department officials, [Mr. Goodale] realized that the Program was being run badly, and froze it at once," Judge Gomery writes. "When it recommenced a few months later, Mr. Goodale discontinued the use of communication agencies, which he found to be inappropriate, in favour of administration by public servants equipped with the proper tools and resources, including newly established guidelines."

Judge Gomery concludes: "These elementary measures should have been applied from the beginning."

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