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OTTAWA — Chuck Cadman was not only offered a million-dollar life insurance policy in exchange for helping bring down the Liberal government in 2005, but also a spot as the Conservative deputy justice critic, the late MP's widow has said, according to documents filed in court.
Dona Cadman says that when as-yet-unnamed operatives came to meet her husband on May 17, 2005 - two days before a key confidence vote that could have brought down the government - they were armed with a list of 10 incentives.
The list, she said, included the deputy justice critic position, as well as a promise to prioritize a piece of legislation on street racing - a topic very near to the MP's heart.
Ms. Cadman's testimony was not readily available to the public yesterday, but was alluded to by a Liberal lawyer during the cross-examination of Prime Minister Stephen Harper in the $3.5-million libel suit against the Liberal Party.
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In four hours of testimony - the transcript of which was released earlier this week - the Prime Minister vehemently denies that he authorized any meeting other than one that took place two days later, a few hours before the May 19 confidence vote.
At that meeting, he said, the only offer party officials were authorized to make was to provide Mr. Cadman with election campaign, not personal, financial support.
"First of all, I have no idea who these people would have been, or what they were doing," Mr. Harper said of whoever came to visit Mr. Cadman at the alleged meeting two days earlier.
The so-called Cadman affair generated plenty of headlines earlier this year, after a book by B.C. author Tom Zytaruk revealed allegations of a meeting on the eve of the 2005 confidence vote. Mr. Cadman was suffering from terminal cancer at the time. Ultimately, he voted with the government, preventing its collapse. He died later the same year.
Opposition politicians seized on the allegations when they first surfaced. In turn, Mr. Harper sued the Liberal Party over statements on the party's website claiming the Prime Minister was aware of attempts to bribe Mr. Cadman.
Now, with more testimony from the resulting court case possibly to be made public in the coming days, the Cadman affair could surface again as a potential election topic. Court documents show Mr. Zytaruk is currently scheduled to testify in open court late this month - likely during the heart of the election campaign.
Mr. Harper contends that an audio recording of an interview Mr. Zytaruk conducted with him in September, 2005, was doctored. The author denies the allegation, and is not named as a defendant in the lawsuit against the Liberals.
While everyone agrees a meeting took place on May 19, it is the alleged meeting two days prior that is still the subject of intense dispute. Mr. Harper says he authorized no Conservative officials to take part in any such meeting. Although Ms. Cadman has testified such a meeting took place, the identity of those involved is still unknown.
In her testimony, Ms. Cadman appears to have also said that she believes one of the officials present during the contentious May 17 meeting with Mr. Cadman was named Jim.
That led to a speculative back-and-forth between Mr. Harper and the Liberal lawyer, during which the lawyer quizzed the Prime Minister about various senior party officials with that name.
Mr. Harper said that, since the Cadman story broke in February, he has asked "various individuals" if they were at such a meeting. No one said yes.
