Martin is toast, read this from today's National Post.
Martin was urged in 2002 to look into sponsorships
Senior Liberal asked finance chief to probe funnelling of money for 'partisan purposes'
Michael Friscolanti
National Post
February 13, 2004
Paul Martin.
CREDIT: Wayne Cuddington, CanWest News Service (Ottawa Citizen)
Paul Martin was urged by a senior Liberal party official in early 2002 to look into rumours that federal money was being improperly funnelled through the government's sponsorship program for "partisan purposes," the National Post has learned.
In a February, 2002, letter sent to Mr. Martin while he was still finance minister, the party's then-national policy chair asked him to "prepare a fact-based reply" to "the growing rumours that funds from the sponsorship programme are being diverted" through advertising firms closely linked to the Liberals.
Akaash Maharaj warned Mr. Martin that fellow members were expressing discomfort about the speculation, so much so that the issue had "become a creeping miasma over the Party."
Because Mr. Martin was both the "government's chief financial officer and our Party's most senior Quebec minister" at the time, Mr. Maharaj said he was the perfect person to examine the allegations.
"I trust you will agree, however, that while it would be absurd for a minister of the Crown or an officer of the Party to act on every rumour that comes his or her way, this one is sui generis, and cries out to be nipped in the bud."
The letter emerged as questions over the sponsorship scandal continued yesterday.
The scandal erupted on Tuesday when Sheila Fraser, the Auditor-General, revealed that as part of a Chretien-era marketing plan to promote federalism in Quebec, Liberal-friendly advertising firms received $100-million in commissions and fees in exchange for little or no work.
Opposition critics have demanded to know what Mr. Martin knew of problems in the program and when he learned of them. Critics have also questioned why Mr. Martin, who was finance minister at the time, did nothing to stop the problems.
Mr. Martin said yesterday he knew little about the program during his tenure as Jean Chretien's finance minister, and any Cabinet minister who did know about corruption and did nothing about it should resign.
Mr. Martin said yesterday that he had believed problems ailing the program were merely administrative until Ms. Fraser's first report on problems in the sponsorship program was released in May, 2002.
"That is when I began to understand that what had occurred went far beyond administrative failures and involved possible criminal conduct," he said.
"But even then, no one understood the full scope of what was involved until the Auditor-General's report that came out recently."
He also repeated an earlier position that there was little he could do to influence decisions regarding Quebec.
"It is no secret that I did not have an easy relationship with those around the former prime minister, stemmed primarily from the fact that we held different views on Quebec -- a number of you have written on those views -- and that I wanted to succeed him," he told a packed news conference.
"This did not get in the way of a successful collaboration," he added, "but it did obviously affect personal and political relationships. In short, my advice was not routinely sought on issues related to Quebec."
Mr. Maharaj said yesterday he received a standard letter of receipt from Mr. Martin's office, but never any further direction on how to answer the onslaught of questions coming from other Liberals.
"Given that I was serving as national policy chair and writing to him in that capacity -- and also given that the contents of the letter were of grave concern -- I would hope that the letter would have been passed to him by his staff," he said yesterday.
Scott Reid, a spokesman for the Prime Minister, said his staff was still searching for the February letter last night so it is unclear how Mr. Martin responded to the message, if at all.
However, he said the letter would have been just one aspect of the flurry of rumours and media reports about possible corruption that were floating around Ottawa in early 2002 -- rumours that led to Ms. Fraser being called in to investigate contracts awarded to Groupaction, a Montreal advertising firm.
"Mr. Martin, as a member of the Cabinet, was part of the decision to call in the Auditor-General," Mr. Reid said last night.
Mr. Maharaj's 2002 letter, however, expressed concern that the Auditor-General and the Ethics Counsellor lacked "the ability to fully investigate the government programmes" because they could not delve deeply enough into the inner workings of the Liberal Party of Canada.
"My worry is that any report by them that is silent on the role of the Party is likely to be interpreted as implicating the Party merely by its failure to exonerate the Party," he wrote.
Although based on media reports and innuendo circling through the Liberal Party of Canada, Mr. Maharaj's letter warns of a possible partisan payment scheme "connected with the 2000 general election campaign in Quebec."
Mr. Maharaj said last night that although the letter did not contain details, it should have at least given Mr. Martin an idea of the potential abuse being waged with taxpayers' money.
"In the exceptionally unlikely event that there are any shards of fact within the rumours, I know you will agree that the Party would have a still greater responsibility to discover and to be forthcoming with the truth," he wrote in the 2002 letter. "Ultimately, each of us has a duty to be a patriot before he is a partisan, and to be guided by the judgement of history rather than the verdict of tomorrow's polls."
Mr. Martin said yesterday he takes "personal responsibility" for getting to the bottom of what went wrong. He also promised to appear before the public inquiry he established earlier this week.
"I profoundly regret that something as objectionable as this occurred, and for the unconscionable disregard that some in government, bureaucratic and political, showed for the law and for appropriate behaviour," the Prime Minister said.
"Anyone who knows anything that could help shed light in this area, in the government, in the caucus or anywhere in the country, corporations or in the Liberal party should come forward, not wait to be compelled, as they will."
Mr. Maharaj, who is no longer the national policy chair, said although he expected a more comprehensive response from Mr. Martin, he will be "shocked" if the Prime Minister is found to be implicated in the sponsorship scandal.
"I believe he is a person of integrity," he said of Mr. Martin. "What I will say, though, is that I am certain there is more to come out, because the essence of democracy is public accountability. Heads must roll over this affair, and they must roll at the highest level."
mfriscolanti@nationalpost.com |
