Former bureaucrat Chuck Guité was sentenced Monday to 42 months in prison after being found guilty of all counts of fraud in the wake of the federal sponsorship scandal.
The Crown had sought a sentence of between three to four years. Prosecutor Jacques Dagenais told a Montreal court that Mr. Guité's power and position of trust meant he deserved the harshest sentence to date of the three players convicted in the federal scandal. Mr. Guité was found guilty earlier this month of five counts of fraud.
Mr. Guité oversaw the program set up by then prime minister Jean Chrétien after the separatist forces' near-win in the 1995 referendum. The others convicted in the scheme are Liberal-friendly admen Paul Coffin, sentenced to 18 months, and Jean Brault, sentenced to 30 months. Mr. Dagenais said that Mr. Brault, head of Groupaction Marketing, showed genuine remorse.
“He had control over the whole process,” Mr. Dagenais told Mr. Justice Fraser Martin during the sentencing hearings.
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“It's very frightening just to think that if it hadn't been for investigative reporting by The Globe and Mail, the whole thing would have gone unnoticed and unknown by everyone.”
Mr. Dagenais said Mr. Guité insinuated during his Quebec Superior Court trial that he was simply following the orders of his political masters. But despite the hints of corruption, Mr. Guité never named names, the prosecutor said.
“He's throwing discredit on the whole political class,” Mr. Dagenais said in presenting his sentencing arguments.
Earlier this month, a jury found Mr. Guité guilty of five counts of fraud. Mr. Guité was detained immediately after the judge revoked his bail.
The jurors decided that they leaned more toward the Crown's contention that he was a co-conspirator in a massive fraud rather than a victim, as the 62-year-old retired civil servant contended.
The verdict signalled that the jury wasn't willing to give him the benefit of the doubt when he said that any irregularities in the sponsorship program stemmed not from criminal intent but from the panic that seized Ottawa in the wake of the 1995 referendum.
Mr. Guité was charged with five counts of fraud for awarding five contracts worth about $2-million to Groupaction Marketing Inc., the firm of Montreal ad executive Jean Brault. The Crown said little or no work was done.
Mr. Brault had already pleaded guilty to the same charges and was sentenced last month to 30 months in a penitentiary. The Crown is expected to ask for a stiffer penalty against Mr. Guité, because of his key role as a civil servant managing large sums of public money.
Mr. Guité defended himself after parting with his lawyers before the trial, saying he had run out of money. In addition, he commuted daily from Ottawa to Montreal where the trial took place because Mr. Brault had initially been a co-accused.
The verdict marked the first time a jury had looked into the scandal stemming from the millions of dollars Ottawa poured into Quebec events to bolster its presence after the 1995 referendum.
“I make no excuse for the way the (sponsorship) program was administered between 1995-1999. It was done with little resources, to the best of our abilities, under the circumstances of the day,” Mr. Guité told jurors.
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