Friday, November 30, 2007

Why I Suspect a Cover-Up

I heard someone on the news say today that the Liberals are going to try to twist the Mulroney-Schreiber investigation to smear the current government with cover-up allegations. This sort of spin drives me crazy. It's not a smear. There is strong reason to think that there may be a cover-up that goes deep in the Harper government. In particular, Peter MacKay may be implicated. We need to get to the bottom of this. If Harper, MacKay and others are cleared, that's great - but we can't let the cover-up ride the way we've allowed the Airbus scandal and Mulroney-Schreiber payments to go on and on until most of the witnesses are dead.

These are the few things we know to date about the cover-up:

- Mulroney is influential in the current government and with Stephen Harper. His influence is heightened by his importance to the old Progressive Conservative branch of the party, which was subsumed by the Reform-Alliance party.
- Mulroney swore under oath that "I had never had any dealings with [Schreiber]" when in fact he did.
- Mulroney and his spokesman have told several lies, including that his agreement with Schreiber was a legitimate consulting deal concerning a pasta business.
- Schreiber sent a letter to Harper last spring that detailed his allegations against Mulroney. Harper claims he never saw the letter.
- Elmer MacKay drafted a letter in 2006 for Schreiber; the letter attempted to absolve Mulroney of wrongdoing in his deals with Schreiber. Schreiber claims that he was coerced into signing the letter to prevent being extradited to Germany.
- Schreiber claims that Mulroney told him that he showed the 2006 letter to Harper, and that Harper and Justice Minister Rob Nicholson appeared willing to cooperate.
- Elmer MacKay sent at least one fax to the RCMP trying to get them to stop their investigation into the payments, and we know that this fax was sent from Defence Minister Peter MacKay's constituency office. (Given that Elmer is the former solicitor general, this communication is a pretty big deal.)
- The RCMP did indeed abandon their investigation, even though the press uncovered a huge amount of evidence of wrongdoing.
- Elmer MacKay is close to his son Peter MacKay, the Defence Minister.
- Peter MacKay has personal ties to Schreiber (Schreiber got him a job at Thyssen; Schreiber lived in his father's home).
- There's a mystery around who paid off Peter MacKay's large leadership campaign debt (estimated at $500,000).

Peter MacKay's denials sound pretty convincing at the moment, but it's easy for him to deny everything now when so little has come out. Here are some questions we need to get answers to:

- We know about the letter, the fax and Mulroney's lies, but what else did Elmer, Mulroney and others do to cover up the Schreiber-Mulroney deal?
- Did Peter's constituency staff help Elmer with the cover-up (other than helping him send the fax to the RCMP)?
- How involved was Elmer in the cover-up?
- Who else helped with the cover-up?
- Did Peter help Schreiber with Bear Head?
- How much money has the MacKay family received from Schreiber?
- Harper has admitted that he knows who paid off Peter MacKay's campaign debt: was it Schreiber who paid it off?
- Did Mulroney talk to Harper, Nicholson or anyone else in government about Schreiber? They say no, but it seems he must have: if not, what was the purpose of the 2006 letter?

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5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think this is a smear campaign anything to get back in power. Why don't the Liberals think about what is good for the country instead of stirring up this big waste of pile of lies.I used to vote Liberal not anymore.

Yappa said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Yappa said...

To anonymous at 6:19 -

Give me some substance, man! Geeze Louise, I'm sick of comments without content. I don't give a damn who you vote for. I have laid out a case for a cover-up. If you think it's invalid, tell me why. The issue is important and your petty prejudices are not.

Anonymous said...

-The Reform Party was formed BECAUSE of Mulroney.
-While Mulroney and Schreiber were doing the tango, Stephen Harper was busy writting policy for the Reform Party.
NO LOVE LOST between PMSH and Mulroney...that's well known.
No way PMSH would entertain helping Mulroney help Schreiber...not one person in MSM believes PMSH would either.
Libs stand alone there.

-Schreiber swore under oath too, many times, and has changed his story each time.
He also said Mulroney set him up. He knew he'd been duped after seeing PMSH go public.
Obviously he believed PMSH never was presented the letter.
Not that anyone should care what Schreiber thinks.
-Peter MacKay was on a German exchange program, had not met nor knew who Schreiber was when he took the summer job...he was a kid then for gawd's sake.
-Schreiber was a personal friend of Elmer MacKay's and Lalond's too. Lots of Liberal friends out there for Schreiber. He donated $10k to Libs in 1993, perhaps Chretien should be questioned too..

This entire Schreiber circus is pathetic.
How in the hell can Canada keep this fraudster here, not charged with any crime in Canada, for eight years, while Germany is calling for his return to face life in prison.
Our legal system sucks big time.

2 men, taking revenge on each other.
Both are liars under oath.
Both have questionable ethics.
Libs desperate to hide wimpy Dion try to cook up a scandal, on the taxpayer dollar.
Libs want back in government as much as Schreiber wants to stay in Canada.
Neither care who gets hurt, how much it costs, as long as it happens.

Yappa said...

Hi anonymous at 8:01 -

Thanks for the substantive comment. Of course I disagree with a few of your points...

Harper hated the PCs (as well as the more moderate members of the Reform party) because of what he saw as their soft social stance. Harper doesn't like the social safety net, government-run health care, legal abortions or gun laws, and he believes in the death penalty, bigger jails and a bigger military. That was his disagreement with Mulroney, and also with Preston Manning.

Since becoming PM Harper has changed his tune on Mulroney. Mulroney has become very influential for a number of reasons, perhaps mainly because much of the Conservative party comes from the old PC party that Harper took over. Whatever their past differences, for the last couple of years Harper and Mulroney have been allies.

I don't know why you say that not one person in the media believes that Harper might have helped Mulroney. The next few weeks will be telling. I'm not saying he did, but we need to find out.

I agree with you that Schreiber is not a credible source. We need to double-check everything he says. But a lot of what he has said so far has been confirmed by others... Mulroney has admitted to receiving the $300K, and so on.

We just don't know enough yet. Pure speculation... my guess is that Harper is not implicated in the cover-up, but Peter MacKay is.