Liberals Shaken by Inquiry Testimony

[Said1]

I was just watching this on tv, the house of commons is in a total uproar, should get nasty over the coming weeks.

Liberals Shaken by Inquiry Testimony

Thu April 7, 2005 5:10 PM GMT-04:00

By Randall Palmer

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Sordid tales of kickbacks and allegations of criminal conspiracy left the minority Liberal government reeling on Thursday after a judge released sensational evidence from an inquiry into a spending scandal.

Advertising executive Jean Brault provided the clearest testimony yet after a year of hearings that the Liberals asked for and received contributions in return for government advertising and sponsorship contracts.

"There is mounting evidence, a mountain of evidence, that this Liberal government is involved in a criminal conspiracy of the like never seen in this country before," Conservative Party deputy leader Peter MacKay charged in Parliament.

A week-long imposition of a publication ban on Brault's testimony had only served to heighten public interest to find out what was so juicy to have been kept out of Canada's media.

The head of the federal inquiry, Justice John Gomery, had imposed the ban on the grounds the testimony might prejudice Brault's pending criminal trial for fraud, but the judge lifted the lid on the vast majority of it on Thursday.

"What Canadians are about to see through the media is an example of the Liberals' treating the public purse as their private piggy bank," Jack Layton, head of the New Democratic Party, the smallest of the three opposition parties.

The Conservatives, who have the numbers to keep the Liberals in power, reiterated on Wednesday they would not bring drown the nine-month-old minority government immediately, because Canadians needed "some time" to absorb the Gomery commission news and because more testimony needed to be heard.

But momentum has clearly built with Brault's testimony, and most analysts now expect an election this year rather than next, perhaps as early as this summer if Conservative polling numbers start to climb.

Two months ago, the Liberals had roughly the same level of support as at last June's election, when they lost their majority in Parliament, but no new polls have been published to reflect public reaction to daily evidence from the inquiry.

The commission is looking into a C$250 million ($200 million) sponsorship program designed to increase Canada's visibility in Quebec after separatists barely lost a referendum on independence for the French-speaking province in 1995.

Some C$100 million of that went in commissions to ad firms like Brault's Groupaction, which developed close ties to the Liberal Party.

.
Link