Gomery is annoyed that the Martin government had a secret exchange of letters with Chretien’s lawyers acknowledging that even as the former prime minister dropped his court case alleging Gomery’s bias against him, he could make the same accusations later after the release of the judge’s findings.
Gomery didn’t know about the letter. He read about it in the papers. And he’s furious. The Martin government professes to support him, but it looks as if it was undermining him.
The May 30 letter was signed by federal government lawyer Brian Saunders, but as far as the Gomery Commission is concerned, it was approved by the Clerk of the Privy Council, Alex Himelfarb. Mere government lawyers, acting on their own, don’t make deals on behalf of one prime minister with another.
By coincidence, or not, May 30 was the same day Chretien’s lawyers withdrew his case, removing a very inconvenient obstacle from the Martin government’s path to political recovery.
“Secret deal between Martin and Chretien” went the banner headline in La Presse on Monday, as it broke the story that has dominated Question Period all week. “The newspaper added a telling overline: “Ex Prime Minister has the green light to re-attack Judge Gomery’s credibility.”
Good for you Gomery, let Scott “Benedict Arnold” Brison try and spin this. “Let Justice Gomery do it’s work” my ass.
Lawyers don’t work for free- can we see their bills for trying to derail the commission?
This guy Martin is slowly digging his own grave.
From the National Post:
“Even as Public Works Minister Scott Brison recited the mantra that “we support Judge Gomery,” his department was putting out the word that the costs of the inquiry had exploded to $72-million.
The inflated $72-million figure includes the cost and time of bureaucrats being interviewed by the commission and providing documents to it. In other words, Gomery was being billed for their time, even though they were already on the job. ”
This is a classic case of double-dipping. Should employees in the Public Service be eligible to be paid twice for doing 1 job description ? Clearly , Brison is hyper inflating the cost of the inquiry to undermine “Mister Justice Judge Gomery” as Brison call him. Was this the way he dealt business when he was the “Fridge Magnet” during his happy days in student life?
The Liberal strategy is their usual strategy. Publically defend a Inquiry, and privately work to discredit it and bring it down.
They did it with APEC and Somalia inquiries.
Remember the whole point for the Liberals in appointing any Inquiry is not to get to the truth, but to deflect questions and create “issue-fatigue” whereby the public and media tire of the story and drop it.
How did La Presse find out about the letters between the lawyers?Who tipped them off?
Somebody is playing games here. How long will it take for Gomery to get a hearing in Federal Court. Courts have calendars and Gomery can’t just waltz in and take a booking. Then he won’t write his report until after the hearing. And the election won’t be called until when?
Yeah, Right!
That’s it, OttRob, Issue-fatigue equates to issue-erasure.
Used years ago for East Coast Oil Spills.
Big fuss in the media.
Big study to *get to the bottom of this*
Big silence because study underway and will yield report.
Big price tag for one year plus study.
1.6 million dollar report sets gathering dust on the shelf
Saw no refrence to that report during the Valdeze oil spill fiasco.
Canadians are not really studies / reports dupes, are we?
Ouch, Canadians are me. 73s TG
Gomery is the CPC’s darling. Why are you guys turning on him? Isn’t it enough that Gomery is using Mulroney and his chief of staff Bernard Roy? How much more do you want this slanted in your favour?
Believe it or not, Puff Duffy dealt with this in-depth last night on Countdown, and even suggested (I’m not drunk or stoned here…) that should the Librano$ be successful, that the final report could be delayed or not released if it’s tied up in court. Guess what? No election in the 30-days post Gomery. His panelists, including a toronto talking head, agreed! Typical of Libs, they say. More interestingly, the outrage across Quebec was such that the Libs, if they play this game, will be entirely wiped out. Because Quebecers, unlike Ontarians and Atlantic parasites, can actually see the Libs for what they are and what they stand/don’t stand for. Thank God Duceppe didn’t make the move. He’s the only one who will continue to drive this thing into the ground, and the Libs into oblivion. He’s worth every cent of his pension and more if he can wipe out the Libs in their beloved Quebec.
AA,
What do you mean, Gomery is “using” Mulroney and his chief of staff. Not once did I see Mr. Mulroney at the Gomery inquiry.Did you? As for Mr. Roy, he is entitled to seek work as a lawyer, anywhere, and his past political associations should have no bearing on his work. Your implications are outrageous!
As for turning on Gomery– is that what you call pointing out Liberal shenanagins?
Martin said he wanted Gomery to get to the bottom of the sponsorship program but it seems that Gomery has only dealt with the upper crust.The real question has always been what the grunts in all those Ad agencies were doing for the Grits.
Shifting gears…. I have decided to stop saying Liberal and am instead going to use the term Grits. Grits are for grinding and these grits are highly abrasive to my Canadian sensibilities.
Think of what happens when you have Grits in any system. It eventually gets warn down. Add a little Conservative action and things last longer……. There are many ways you can insert the words Grits and Conservative into a sentence to assess just how differently the two parties work.
I am still working on the concept of abrassive Grits and conservative Conservatives so ( I hope Kate doesn’t mind me using her Blog to request some help here ) I am hoping some of you eloquent wordsmiths out there might help me flesh out the concept.
aa, phone home…
Jubi, the ministers & witnesses didn’t get “paid” I don’t think, for attending. The point is that the Libs calculated the price of the hours spent either testifying or digging up documents in their “costs” when the salaries were going to be paid ANYWAY. The only way that staff “costs” could be applied to the cost of Gomery is if they were hired SPECIFICALLY for the inquiry.
So the salaries have already been budgeted for and paid for, the Libs are just inflating the “cost” of Gomery by including costs that we would have paid anyway.
A possible analogy would be having Boston Pizza put a $1.00 surcharge on your bill to cover the costs of lighting the restaurant while you ate there. (electricity being a “cost of doing business”)
Pure BS
So it now becomes apparent that the Grits (love the comment above) have been acting in bad faith all this time. What are the odds of Gomery exceeding his mandate and actually placing blame and recommending charges et. al against all those who really are guilty. I would love for him to release to the press his finding with and appendix placing blame. Of course I dream in technicolor and this is only that … PITY
Iron Lady, I saw Duffy last night too – in fact, there seems to be a distinct change in his take this past week or so… Maybe all of our emails to ctv have paid off? Or maybe he just got tired of cutting himself shaving while trying to avoid looking himself in the mirror!
Little Miss Gidget, on the other hand, actually thought PMPM was cute with his South Beach Diet stunt, whereas Duffy had just called it … was it weird? bizarrre?
Somebody ought to pull the plug on Gidget. She must be married to somebody at Bellglobe Media. How else can you account for her National Enquirer mentality/style? Yeah, the South Beach Diet was real cute. Harper’s got so much class, he just smiles and indulges the whims of the neanderthals. I think Puff has a line on what’s actually going on in the bowels of the Librano$ and doesn’t like what he sees. He’s now secure enough he can actually be honest! Oh my God! Honesty in journalism. What next? By the way, does anybody know what happened to that National Post reporter, Juliette O’Neil (I think) whose home was raided by the RCMP? It seems ages ago, and I’ve never seen her byline anywhere else since then. I can barely remember why it was raided. Was it over Maher Arar (this one is a bit stinky…), Canadians in Afghanistan or Adscam? I really can’t remember, but I do remember being outraged at the time. Shit. I’m turning into an Ontarian. Outta sight, outta mind.
Thank you for the reminder about O’Neil, IronLady.
We canadians are more forgetful than rabbits (are they?), yet media guys like Coyne and Gunter may, and should update us on one of their own.
Who knows them well enough to make a cellphone request? Otherwise an Email reminder may do it. I think Coyne’s Email only allows 400 chars. You can say more to Gunter. 73s TG
Has anybody seen her byline, or was she paid to go away and shut up, perhaps? Can you imagine how terrified she must have been. TG, what exactly was the issue of the time (flavour of the week?)? I’m embarrassed to say, because at the time, I was horrified. I guess I’ve become desensitized to horrific events when it comes to the Libs. Duff said last night, the Libs might pull a fast one and release NOTHING FROM GOMERY!!! Or, a very watered down version. But I like the idea he’d go into fuck-you all mode and release his own version on his own website. That way, nobody could touch him.
Ms. O’Neil is writing puff pieces for that nauseating bird cage liner the Ottawa Citizen
Candace,
Yup , I agree “paid” is not the appropriate terminology, but same difference: Librano$ are hyper-inflating cost to mudsling and under cut Judge Gomery in the eyes of the public. They want to buttress their spin to the tune of: “It cost much more to hold the Gomery than what the public can get back from it…ergo , a wasteful and useless exercise in futility …”
And also, AA phone home … I kinda notice a few of your “loose screws” lying on the sideroad ….
#o day after the final report I want a writ dropped or we natives light torches, grab some rope and have a midnight neck tie party for Paulie. Hey anyone remember if their’s enough trees arount the hill to facilitate the just dispatch of this Librano regime? 😉
Now Judge Gomery is angry; Stephen Harper is angry.
Who is the next angry man?
It’s Canadian Angry.
More, please; and faster.
good call, maz2
circe, the bird cage liner is a more appropriate way to describe the Globe and Mail.
Yes, birdcage liner applies for Globe and Mail. I don’t consume it anymore. Heartburn. 73s TG
Do any lawyers out there know how Gomery’s final report may impact on the ongoing Adscam trials?
Let’s say Guite is convicted in October and files an appeal, can the Liberals say they can’t release Gomery’s report until all cases have worked their way through the court system? Libs can say court cases are pending and they don’t want to “prejudice” them by releasing Gomery’s final report.
jubi, did Brison’s figure inlcude the costs of journalists covering the inquiry or people watching at home? Our time is worth something too isn’t it?
I don’t think the fact that the Liberals had no interest in Gomery beyond distracting the voters is a big surprise to anyone here. The question is, will this ever penetrate to enough Ontario voters to matter.