PM, Flags, Promises to Keep to Nfld., Sponsorship / ADSCAM, Beaudoin, ADSCAM 'Dry Cleaning'

Paul Martin should blush -- If anyone has scorned the Maple Leaf, it's PM and his band of Liberals -- "In short, the Liberals used the Maple Leaf flag "as a lever" to steal money for themselves."

Paul Martin should blush -- If anyone has scorned the Maple Leaf, it's PM and his band of Liberals January 9, 2005, Licia Corbella, Calgary Sun

[. . . . ] For what is a higher calling -- using the flag to better the lot of an entire province or using the flag to better the bottom line of the [PM] family bank account?

Martin himself has lowered Canada's flag and has defended doing so even though he did it only for crass profiteering at the expense of the country he supposedly leads and loves and to the benefit only of himself and his fabulously wealthy family. [. . . . ]

Essentially, Newfoundland wants to keep 47% of the revenues and Ottawa would keep 53%. Surely that's not asking too much? Martin, who feared that his lifelong dream of being PM was slipping away, agreed to Williams' plan during the election campaign and reneged afterwards. It is the Martin and Liberal way.

[. . . . ] His party has been using the Maple Leaf in a shameless way for years to steal from Canadians and fill up -- if not their personal coffers (though don't rule that out) -- then certainly the bank accounts of friends and party supporters.

[. . . . ] According to information contained in federal Auditor General Sheila Fraser's report on this, it appears that the Liberals used our flag to launder money.

Tell Prime Minister Paul Martin to Keep his Promise

Last summer Prime Minister Paul Martin promised the people of Newfoundland and Labrador a fair deal--a deal that would finally let the province keep one hundred percent of provincial revenues under the Atlantic Accord.

Since then, Prime Minister Martin has failed to keep his promise. Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams has made a firm stand against Ottawa, and now it's time to support his efforts. Too much is at stake: Newfoundlanders and Labradorians need a fair deal, and all Canadians need a Prime Minister who will keep his promises.

If you believe that Newfoundland and Labrador deserves a fair deal, complete the form below to send the letter on the right to Prime Minister Martin and Finance Minister Ralph Goodale.

Click here to tell friends

"I have worked and will continue to work hard to ensure that Newfoundland and Labrador receives 100 per cent of its oil and gas revenues under the Atlantic Accord with no clawbacks because I want to see - and my government wants to see - the people of this province succeed and prosper." -- Prime Minister Paul Martin, Canadian Press, January 8, 2005

"Currently, Canada's most easterly province only gets to keep 14% of the revenues from its resources and the feds take a whopping 86% even though the Atlantic Accord signed back in the '80s with the Mulroney government promised the province a much larger share." -- Licia Corbella, Calgary Sun

Liberals to return sponsorship donations -- Of course, they did nothing wrong. . . . . .

Liberals to return sponsorship donations CP

Longueuil, Quebec — The federal Liberals will reimburse all donations received from groups involved in the sponsorship program, Jean Lapierre said Thursday.

Paul Martin's Quebec lieutenant originally made the pledge during last summer's election campaign. But the party later said in September that it would only reimburse donations from companies whose directors were convicted of crimes.

[. . . . ] The Liberal party said last fall that two of its own audits concluded the party received $1.5-million in donations from companies named in the auditor general's report on sponsorship and advertising abuses. [. . . . ]

Former federal bank chief Beaudoin denies sponsorship wrongdoing, blames others -- "In the end, Beaudoin was vindicated in a bitter lawsuit, winning restoration of the pension benefits the bank had tried to deny him."


Former federal bank chief denies sponsorship wrongdoing, blames others Jim Brown, CP, January 14, 2005

OTTAWA (CP) - Francois Beaudoin, the former president of the Business Development Bank of Canada, firmly denied any personal responsibility Thursday for questionable business dealings related to the federal sponsorship program.

Instead he pointed the finger at his subordinates - including Jean Carle, who came to the bank as a vice-president after serving as a top aide to then-prime minister Jean Chretien. Testifying at the public inquiry into the sponsorship scandal, Beaudoin painted a picture of Carle as a close friend of Jean Lafleur, whose ad agency Lafleur Communication did more than $1.7 million worth of business with the federally-owned BDC.

Beaudoin maintained, among other things, that Lafleur and Carle proposed in 1999 to rent a corporate box for Canadiens hockey games at the Molson Centre in Montreal - but to cover up the fact that BDC was footing the bill by using Lafleur Communication as a front for the deal.

"'We can do the dry-cleaning'," Beaudoin quoted Lafleur as saying, with Carle's apparent approval.

[. . . . ] BDC contributed $250,000 to the TV series [Scully] and later concluded, in an internal review, that it got value for its money.

But the bank also served as a conduit to transfer another $125,000 to Scully from the Public Works Department.

Lafleur Communication and another Montreal ad agency, Media IDA Vision, acted as middlemen in that complex transaction and collected combined commissions of $18,000 - apparently for doing little work.

Beaudoin insisted Thursday he had no knowledge of that part of the deal.

[. . . . ] In the end, Beaudoin was vindicated in a bitter lawsuit, winning restoration of the pension benefits the bank had tried to deny him.

The presiding judge roundly criticized the BDC and Vennat, who was subsequently fired by Prime Minister Paul Martin.

There is mention of Beaudoin and his crossing Jean Chretien in this post: The Common Thread in the Politicization of the National Police Force?





ADSCAM 'Dry cleaning' -- Chretien wingmen suggest scheme, exec says

ADSCAM 'Dry cleaning' Stephanie Rubec, January 14, 2005

FRANCOIS BEAUDOIN, the bank executive at the centre of the Shawinigate controversy, tied a former senior PMO official to a scheme to "dry clean" federal funds. The former head of the Business Development Bank yesterday told the commission probing the sponsorship scandal that Jean Carle, former PM Jean Chretien's chief of operations, twice attempted to pressure him to buy a box at Montreal's Molson Centre.

Beaudoin said Carle teamed up with advertising exec Jean Lafleur during a February 1999 dinner at a Montreal restaurant to suggest he mask the purchase with a fictitious invoice to avoid public scrutiny.

"I believe that it was Lafleur who suggested we could do dry cleaning," Beaudoin told Justice John Gomery, adding the duo erupted in laughter over his ignorance of the term. [. . . . ]