The Gomery Inquiry is starting to get to the good stuff. Yesterday on CBC Newsworld's Politics the Liberal spokesman, Scott Reid, looked like he had seen a ghost (or was that a skeleton; more on that later) and now we have this story from Canada Press (via CFRB)
Jean Carle, a former top aide to Jean Chretien and senior executive at the Business Development Bank of Canada, admitted Friday that he helped construct a phoney paper trail to conceal details of a $125,000 sponsorship deal.
Carle's startling testimony, at the public inquiry into the federal sponsorship program, drew a tart observation from Justice John Gomery. "If this were a drug deal, it would be called money-laundering," said Gomery.
"You're not wrong," Carle meekly replied.
Update: (via CTV.ca)
Carle, who became the senior vice-president at the Business Development Bank of Canada after he left the Prime Minister's Office, testified Friday that the bank agreed to act as a conduit.
He said BDC agreed to transfer $125,000 to Robert Scully, who was producing a TV series called Le Canada Millennaire. The bank had already given $250,000 of its own money to support the series.
The additional money had originated with the Public Works Department, but Pierre Tremblay, who was in charge of the sponsorship program, didn't want the transaction on his books, Carle testified.
"He told me that they owed (Scully) $125,000,'' said Carle. But Tremblay added that Public Works had already "given too much'' that year to the producer.
Carle said Tremblay offered to later use the money to provide the bank with additional advertising spots on the series, in exchange for channeling it through the BDC.
At the time, Tremblay was chief of staff to then public works minister Alfonso Gagliano. There was no explanation Friday as to why Tremblay might want to conceal the money.
"I did not do this in bad faith. We were kind of a transmission belt," Carle said.
So Jean Carle works for PM Chretien in the sponsorship campaign. As a reward he gets a plum assignment as the VP of the Business Development Bank of Canada. Using this position he sets up a slush fund to provide government money off the books. This just gets better and better.
