Harper Sues the Liberals

During question period on Wednesday, an opposition MP mused that Stephen Harper lives in the "libel belt" - a reference to Harper's threats to sue the Liberals over statements they've published about him on their site about the Cadman scandal.

Today, Harper filed that lawsuit and contended in the house that the Liberals had been relying on an "edited and incomplete statement" - referring to the taped conversation that has been released to the media:

"The insurance policy for a million dollars, do you know anything about that?" Zytaruk asks.

"I don't know the details. I know that there were discussions," Harper replies on the tape. "This is not for publication?"

"This will be for the book, not for the newspaper," answers Zytaruk, who works for a Surrey newspaper.

Harper goes on to explain on the tape that the offer to Cadman was "only to replace financial considerations he might lose due to an election." He adds that the offer was carried out by people who were "legitimately representing the party."

He also tells Zytaruk that he knew there was little chance Cadman would agree.

"They wanted to do it, but I told them they were wasting their time. I said Chuck had made up his mind," Harper said.

The Conservatives have alleged, as Harper did again today, that the tape was tampered with. How Harper plans to prove that accusation remains to be seen. At the same time, if the tape has been edited, it seems Harper would have to prove that the Liberals who spoke out knew that it had been - thus knowingly making false statements about him. Furthermore, Harper seems to undermine his own statements about the tape which he's said doesn't prove anything. He's obviously grasping at straws.

Meanwhile, Harper has not extended his suit to include Cadman's widow Dona, his daughter and son-in-law or the author of the book that spawned this controversy. Why not? Simple - this is a purely political attack against the Liberals.

At the same time, according to the G&M:

Wednesday a parliamentary committee collapsed into chaos as Conservatives thwarted a bid to launch an investigation into what Tory Party officials offered to Mr. Cadman.

It was the second time in less than a week that the work of a House of Commons committee has ground to a halt over testimony that could prove politically damaging to the minority government of Mr. Harper.

For the second straight day, Art Hanger, the chairman of the justice committee, walked out of a meeting rather than entertain a Liberal motion that his committee examine the issues surrounding allegations that offers were made to Mr. Cadman in exchange for his vote against a Liberal budget in the spring of 2005.

There are just four Conservative members on the justice committee, plus Mr. Hanger who cannot vote unless there is a tie. So, even though New Democrat MP Joe Comartin was prepared to side with the Conservatives, the four Liberal MPs and two Bloc Québécois MPs would have combined to win the vote.

The chaos at the justice committee comes a week after the Commons procedure and House affairs committee ceased to function after a seven-month filibuster by Conservatives.

On Thursday, Hanger said the Liberals "should be ashamed" for bringing the motion forward to the committee. Justice, it appears, is a shameful thing. Hanger has obviously read his party's manual on how to make parliamentary committees as dysfunctional as possible. If Harper had Medals of Freedom to hand out like his buddy Bush, Hanger would be next in line.

However this lawsuit shakes out in the end, one can't help but be reminded right now about another (former) PM suing for libel - Brian Mulroney. And that case, as we are now learning, appears to have been a colossal waste of taxpayer's money spent to appease one man's ego. I doubt this suit will turn out much differently.
 

Updates on the Cadman Scandal

Accusations, more denials, investigations, audio-taped interviews, non-confidence motion speculation, bullying, ethical lapses, holier-than-thou pronouncements, proclamations of "nothing to see here, folks" - and that's just what's happened since the story about Dona Cadman's allegations of bribery to the tune of $1 million in the form of an insurance policy for her dying husband Chuck were made on Wednesday.

It's all been rather fast and furious and there's still much more to come.

- On Friday, Chuck Cadman's daughter Jodi backed up her mother's assertions when she was interviewed by CBC News: story and video here (Watch the other interview videos as well.)

- The Globe & Mail reports rumours of possible non-confidence motions to bring the government down over the scandal - as early as next week when the NDP might use their opposition day to make their move. The G&M story also has a 2005 audio-taped interview with Chuck Cadman about the offers he received (no specifics mentioned).

“There was certainly some, you know, some offers made and some things along those lines about not opposing me and helping out with the finances of the campaign and that sort of thing. But, again, you know, that's all part of the deal that goes on. It's what happens, especially in a minority situation,” Mr. Cadman says.

To add fuel to the growing fire, they also report that Cadman's son-in-law backs up the allegations.

And take a look at this lowbrow response from Sandra Buckler:

Asked what financial considerations Mr. Harper was talking about on the tape, and what case did he tell the party emissaries to make, the prime minister's communications director ducked the questions.

In an e-mail to The Canadian Press, Sandra Buckler said the tape — which the publisher of the book was selling for $500 a copy — is an excerpt of a longer interview between the prime minister and Mr. Zytaruk.

“We are deeply concerned that an edited excerpt of a taped conversation between Mr. Harper and the book's author is being bootlegged for five hundred bucks a pop by the author. We call on the author to provide Canadians with a complete, unedited audio copy of the author's conversation — from start to finish — with Mr. Harper.”

Ms. Buckler did not reply to a second e-mail asking her to respond to the two original questions.

And she's an official government spokesperson? Using language like that? She sounds like a vice cop.

Furthermore, there's no "bootlegging" involved. The author owns the rights to that interview and can do whatever he wants to with it. Educate yourself on the law, Ms Buckler. We already know you're just Harper's handy spokespuppet who will say anything to shield your boss.

As for Harper, here's what he told the book's author:

Author Tom Zytaruk taped an interview with Mr. Harper in September 2005 for his soon-to-be-released biography of Cadman. On the scratchy 2:37 recording, Mr. Harper, leader of the Opposition at the time, confirms party officials made a financial appeal to Mr. Cadman.

“The offer to Chuck was that it was only to replace financial considerations he might lose due to an election,” Mr. Harper says.

Mr. Harper said he wasn't optimistic about their chances of persuading Mr. Cadman — a former Tory MP who had left the party to sit as an Independent MP — to vote with the Tories to bring down Mr. Martin's government, he urged two people “legitimately representing the party” to tread cautiously.

“I said ‘Don't press him, I mean, you have this theory that it's, you know, financial insecurity, and you know, just, you know, if that's what you're saying make that case,' but I said, ‘Don't press it'.”

So he knew that party officials were trying to buy Cadman's way back into the Conservative party. As the opposition stated on Friday, [The]PM incriminated himself on tape over alleged Cadman bribe.

The ethics committee is set to deal with motions calling for an inquiry into this scandal on Tuesday. In the meantime, the RCMP are also on the case.

No matter how the Conservatives try to spin this, trying to entice a dying man with financial incentives to back their party is bound to leave most Canadians absolutely disgusted. The Cons won't be able to wiggle, bully or spin their way out of that reality.
 

Chuck Cadman's Widow Alleges $1 Million Bribe

The widow of Chuck Cadman has alleged that Conservative party officials attempted to bribe her husband to the tune of $1 million to stop him from propping up the Martin government in 2005.

During question period today, Harper said he'd looked into this himself and decided there was "absolutely no truth in it". This obviously begs the question: Why would Harper take it upon himself to investigate such a serious charge? In politics appearances are everything and if Harper had any political sense, he would have turned this matter over to the appropriate officials right off the bat. Instead, he chose to cover it up and now the Conservatives are accusing Cadman's widow, a member and candidate of their party, of lying. The denials were flying fast and furious during Thursday's questions and, as one opposition MP said in response to Peter Van Loan's flailing, "Me thinks you dost protest too much".

Via the Globe & Mail:

In a statement released Thursday, Tory campaign director Doug Finley and Tom Flanagan, a University of Calgary political science professor who is a close friend and former campaign chief of Mr. Harper, confirmed that they met with Mr. Cadman on May 19, 2005 to discuss his possible re-admission to the Conservative caucus – a fact “widely known in political circles” and on the public record, they said.

The statement does not address the insurance policy allegation, but suggests televised remarks by Mr. Cadman made later that day puts the matter to rest.

“We offered ways that we – as campaign officials – could help Mr. Cadman in the Conservative nomination process, and if successful, wage a competitive campaign in a general election,” the statement said.

“Later that evening, Mr. Cadman confirmed our offer of campaign assistance to a national television audience and further confirmed that this offer was ‘the only offer on anything.' As the record shows, Mr. Cadman declined our offer to re-join the Conservative Caucus.”

Mr. Harper is quoted in the book, Like a Rock: The Chuck Cadman Story, as confirming that a visit took place, and that officials were “legitimately” representing the Conservative Party. But he said any offer to Mr. Cadman was only to defray losses he might incur in an election. A copy of the manuscript, including an introduction by former Liberal prime minister Paul Martin, has been obtained by The Globe and Mail.

Here is Dona Cadman's version of the events:

According to the book, two Conservative officials arrived at Mr. Cadman's Ottawa office two days before the vote on the Liberal budget. It was apparent at that time that the House of Commons was evenly split on the money bill and the nod of the then-Independent MP would decide whether Mr. Martin's Liberal government would survive. “The Tories actually walked in with a list of offers written down on a piece of paper. Included in their proposal was a $1-million life insurance policy – no small carrot for a man with advanced cancer,” the book states.

Dona Cadman, who is now running for the Conservatives in the Vancouver-area riding of Surrey North, was not in the office at the time. But she says her husband was furious when he returned to their apartment. “Chuck was really insulted,” she said in a telephone interview with The Globe yesterday. “He was quite mad about it, thinking they could bribe him with that.”

Mr. Cadman died less than two months after the vote.

Ms. Cadman, who has read and approved the manuscript for the book, said she has “no idea” where the money for the life insurance was supposed to come from. “They had the form there. Chuck just had to sign.”

This is extremely serious business and won't be going away anytime soon, as much as the Conservatives would like it to and as much as they believe that simply shouting it down in the house of commons will make it disappear.

Stephane Dion announced today that the Liberals have "sent a letter to the police [RCMP]" to launch a proper investigation. NDP MP Pat Martin has asked for an ethics committee inquiry.

I'll bet the Conservatives are now wishing they'd managed to force a new election a few months ago considering just how damaging this could end up being to their party. It's a no-win situation for them since, in order to refute these allegations, they'll have to keep insisting that Dona Cadman, one of their own, is a liar. Such accusations against the widow of a much-respected MP will not do them any favours. Add that to the fact that Harper seems to think his dismissal of the allegations were enough to bury this story and you have a situation where he has set himself up to appear ethically-challenged (again). This is yet another example of abuse of power by this Conservative government.

Stock up on popcorn. This one is going to be nasty.

Related:

Steve at Far and Wide asks a good question: Why Do The Conservatives Allow Liars To Run For Office?