OTTAWA — MPs on the Commons ethics committee appear to be losing their appetite for continuing an investigation into the business affairs of former prime minister Brian Mulroney.
After hearing from some witnesses with spotty memories and others who offered nothing new to the existing public record, both Liberals and New Democrats have joined the Conservative party line that it's time to let a public inquiry take a crack at the tangled tale.
“It's our opinion we should wrap it up now, hand it over to the public inquiry to see where they can take it,” NDP MP Pat Martin said Friday.
At issue is Mr. Mulroney's relationship with German-Canadian arms lobbyist Karlheinz Schreiber, a series of secret cash payments to Mulroney shortly after he left office in 1993, and his $2.1-million libel settlement with the Canadian government that resulted from an RCMP investigation gone public.
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Rather than clarifying matters, the witnesses and documents seen to date have led the all-party committee into a morass of contradictions.
Francois Martin, the former chef at 24 Sussex Drive, told the MPs he only met former Mulroney chief of staff Fred Doucet once to get cash for the prime minister's wife Mila. Mr. Doucet told the committee the same thing.
But detailed notes provided to the committee from investigative journalist Stevie Cameron's 1993 interviews with Mr. Martin show the chef repeatedly told her about getting cash from Mr. Doucet on an ongoing basis.
“When it was time for Mila to go shopping Mila would say, 'You will go and get something from Mr. Doucet,”' say the interview notes.
“It's like it was falling from the skies,” Mr. Martin says of the cash at another point.
The arrangement ended only when Mr. Doucet left the Prime Minister's Office in 1987, according to the Martin interview notes.
Mr. Doucet's testimony is also being questioned because of a $90,000 invoice for “professional services” he sent Mr. Schreiber dated Nov. 2, 1988. Mr. Doucet told the committee he didn't start working for the arms broker until 1990.
Committee chairman Paul Szabo said Friday he's seeking clarification through Mr. Doucet's lawyer.
And testimony from Greg Alford, who once worked for Government Consultants International, has also been questioned by some committee MPs. Mr. Alford testified that GCI had no involvement with Air Canada's purchase of Airbus jets in 1988, yet a letter from GCI principal Frank Moores to the chairman of Airbus Industrie dated Feb. 3, 1988 indicates otherwise.
None of the contradictions produces a smoking gun. Combined, however, they fog the committee's examination in uncertainty.
“Exactly what happened?” Liberal MP Robert Thibault asked in an interview on Friday.
“It seems a bunch of good old boys set a system up where they could get very rich, very quick. And the name of the prime minister was used a lot. Was he part of the thing? I don't know. You don't see any direct evidence.”
“This is work for an inquiry,” added the Nova Scotia MP.
“At a committee you can scratch the surface, at best.”
With the House of Commons heading into a one-week break, the committee will return to work in the last week of February to hear from former Mulroney cabinet minister Elmer MacKay, from Mr. Schreiber for a fifth time, and possibly from Mr. Mulroney.
Mr. Mulroney, who first testified in December, is scheduled to close the witness list on Feb. 28.
But the NDP's Mr. Martin said if the former prime minister refuses the invitation, New Democrats will not vote to compel Mr. Mulroney to talk.
“You have to do a cost-benefit analysis to see whether its worth getting to the bottom of this ever or if we should take our lumps, put it on the trash heap of history and try not to ever let it happen again.”
