The Montreal Gazette provides a good summary of the Gomery testimony this week.
...The director, Daniel Dezainde, testified that Jacques Corriveau, a close friend of former prime minister Jean Chretien, told him that he collected kickbacks from advertising agencies. The money from the kickbacks went to the Liberal Party and into Corriveau's own pocket.
Dezainde told the commission that when he became head of the party's Quebec wing in May 2001, he discovered the existence of a secret, parallel fundraising organization. This shadow operation never filed financial reports and one of its fundraisers, Beryl Wajsman, was allegedly involved in lobbying for government contracts on behalf of corporate donors.
When Dezainde fired the fundraiser, the head of the shadow group, Guiseppe (Joe) Morelli, told Dezainde it was now "war" between them. Dezainde said he interpreted the comment as a physical threat.
These are stunning allegations. Threats. Theft. Fraud. The possible buying of an election. The subversion of the mechanisms put in place to protect the democratic process. It would be a disaster if the Canadian public just tuned out, numbed by the daily partisan bickering in Ottawa, and missed the substance of the story being built up in Justice John Gomery's hearing room.
...Under its terms of reference, the Gomery commission can make no finding of criminal responsibility. But we trust that police, not to mention tax authorities, are already at work on their own files: when all this is finished, there will have to be some punishments here.
