Tax records should be off limits, Mulroney lawyer says

Tax records should be off limits, Mulroney lawyer says

Ethics committee adds former Privy Council clerk to witness list

BILL CURRY

January 30, 2008

OTTAWA -- A lawyer for Brian Mulroney sent a blistering letter yesterday to the chair of the House of Commons ethics committee, arguing vehemently that Airbus, personal tax records and the cash expenses of the former prime minister and his wife should be off limits to MPs.

Members of the ethics committee met behind closed doors yesterday for the first time in weeks and approved a list of about a dozen witnesses they want to question in February about Mr. Mulroney's business dealings with German-Canadian businessman Karlheinz Schreiber.

Committee chair Paul Szabo, a Liberal MP, told reporters committee members discussed whether to use their summons powers to obtain Mr. Mulroney's tax records, but did not make a decision.

The MPs did agree to issue a formal summons to appear to any witness on the list who does not show up voluntarily.

The committee has added Jocelyne Bourgon to the witness list.

She was the clerk of the Privy Council in 1997 when the then-Liberal government settled out of court with Mr. Mulroney for $2.1-million in relation to the RCMP investigation of the government's 1988 purchase of Airbus planes for Air Canada, which was then a Crown corporation.

Mr. Mulroney's lawyer, Guy Pratte, argued in the letter that any review of Airbus is beyond the committee's mandate.

He noted the RCMP wrote in 2003 that after an extensive investigation, no evidence of criminality was found.

But what appears to be of particular concern is the committee's plans to hear testimony related to transfers of cash from the Prime Minister's Office to the Mulroneys at their 24 Sussex Dr. residence.

"There is absolutely nothing in [independent government adviser David Johnston's] report or any mandate that you may have that would remotely justify inviting witnesses to testify about the life of the Mulroney family while at 24 Sussex, almost 25 years ago," Mr. Pratte writes.

The committee has called Mr. Mulroney's former chef, François Martin, to testify about claims he made in the 1994 book On the Take by Stevie Cameron that he was regularly asked to carry envelopes of cash from the PMO to Mr. Mulroney's wife, Mila, at 24 Sussex.

Mr. Mulroney's former chief of staff, Norman Spector, has recently stated that his appearance before the committee will include the presentation of documents that will "identify the source of large quantities of cash reported at 24 Sussex."

In Ms. Cameron's book, the man responsible for Progressive Conservative party funds, David Angus - who currently sits as a Mulroney-appointed Senator - says the cash payments were legal advances for party-related expenses incurred by the Mulroneys.

"On its face, Mr. Spector's 'evidence' has clearly nothing to do with your inquiry and it would not only be grossly unfair to allow it to be given under the protective cloak of parliamentary immunity, but would attest to the deliberate abuse of the Committee's process to maliciously cause as much damage as possible to Mr. Mulroney and his family's reputation, for partisan purposes," Mr. Pratte wrote.

Mr. Szabo insisted yesterday that the committee was treating Mr. Mulroney fairly and noted that Mr. Spector was invited before the committee knew he would discuss cash exchanges inside the Mulroney PMO.

 
 

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