John Williams - Chairman, Public Accounts Committee
It starts with small-c corruption. Small-c corruption is lack of management, lack of attention to detail, poor supervision
and, if it is allowed to grow, then it's the perfect atmosphere for large-C corruption. So let's nip it in the bud by having
accountability.

Buddha
Delusions, errors and lies are like huge, gaudy vessels, the rafters of which are rotten and worm-eaten, and those who embark in them are fated to be shipwrecked.

George Santayana
Advertising is the modern substitute for argument; its function is to make the worse appear the better.

Alan K. Simpson
If you have integrity, nothing else matters. If you don't have integrity, nothing else matters.

Robert Louis Stevenson
We all know what Parliament is, and we are all ashamed of it.

La Rochefoucauld
Few men are sufficiently discerning to appreciate all the evil they do.

Seymour Hersh
We understand that there are Nixons and Kissingers and Clintons who don't like to tell the truth. And we don't expect them to. And that is wrong. That's where we make a mistake.

Alfonso Gagliano
If I have to choose between a Liberal or somebody else, for the same price, the same quality, and the same service, I will choose the Liberal.

Translations

CHARGED

Chuck Guite  http://www.canada.com/montreal/montrealgazette/aislin/0512.html
Jean Brault - GroupAction
Paul Coffin - Communication Coffin

Paul Coffin - PLEAD GUILTY TO 15 COUNTS (3 dropped)

Alfonso Gagliano - $4.5 million
Jean Pelletier - $3 million
Marc LeFrancois - $2.7 million

      Andre Oulette - fired, annual pension $110,000
 
 

What Sheila Saw -Fraser, not Copps	Chretien's Defense
The Crown Corporations Sponsorship	The List of Potential Witnesses
Discussing The Sponsorship Audit	Black Budgets
Ontario Grade 10 Literacy Test	Sponsorship Judicial Inquiry
Selected Shorts	Teleopathy - The Illness
April Fools	The Dance of the Dingwall
Liberals In Action (or Inaction)	The Infinitely Gullible Alcock
What Sheila Saw - Copps, not Fraser	André Ouellet
Chuck Guite	Defining Value-For-Money
What Gets Audited	F****** Liberals
Unrelated Events	Quotations & Stuff

Chuck Guite

"When you're at war, you drop the book and the rules and you don't give your plan of attack to the opposition. You don't leave your plan of attack on your desk"

"I ... bought every billboard in Quebec and every outdoor advertising that was available, okay?"

" We change the guidelines to fit the situation ... (It's) not the first time its been done and it's not the last time it will be done."

And the plan of attack is to put a red and white flag and CANADA in the face of separatists at every opportunity. Really stealthy!

And the idea that waving flags and putting Canada graffiti all over the province will convert a separatist is moronic.

What Sheila Saw - Web Site - Sponsorship Program - PDF - HTMLThis Site

When David Peterson was the Liberal premier of Ontario grants from most peculiar places were made to certain hospital boards. The boards made donations to the Liberal party. Of course, one had nothing to do with the other.

Therefore, the fact that $250 million in federal money flowed through various organizations with strong Liberal connections, and advertising agencies raked off $100 million in commissions for doing nothing, has absolutely nothing to do with the advertising agencies making donations to the Liberal party.

So you can understand why Jean Chretien said:

"Perhaps there were a few million dollars that might have been stolen in the process, but how many millions of dollars have we saved ...."

"You know, that was a great, successful program"

What Sheila Saw - Copps, not Fraser
Sheila Copps, miffed that she is not being gifted a Liberal nomination, claims that Paul Martin should have known. Paul says he didn't know because he and Chretien were not best friends. But Sheila was best friends and was Deputy Prime Minister, so why didn't she know?

Turns out Sheila did know. Jean Brault, owner of Groupaction Marketing, and his staff, attended prime minister Jean Chretien's ad hoc cabinet committee on government communications in July 1998. Brault was given two hours to pitch his plan to revamp all federal advertising in community newspapers. The meeting was chaired by then public works minister Alfonso Gagliano. All nine cabinet ministers attending supported the Groupaction proposal. Sheila had misgivings about the fees that would be earned by Groupaction. Paul Martin was not a participant.

Chretien's Defense
Jim Munson, newly minted Senator courtesy of his old boss Chretien, claims that Chretien is obviously innocent because he called in the Audior-General.

It won't wash.
First, Chretien shut down parliament to prevent the presentation of the report in November and then quit.
Second, Chretien's almost son Jean Carle became part of the Business Development Bank  and in the thick of the marketing manipulations. Carle was front and centre in the termination of Francois Beaudoin from the presidency of the Business Development Bank.
Third, Chretien's staff attended meetings where the deficiencies of the sponsorship controls exposed in audits were the subjcet.

The Crown Corporations Sponsorship
The Old Port of Montreal says it did nothing wrong and has nothing to fix because it did what it was told to do by Alfonso Gagliano and J.Charles (Chuck) Guite.

Jean Pelletier, chairman of Via Rail, admitted only "occasional lack of rigor"

A Canada Post spokesperson said the board had no plans to discuss the Auditor-General's report or do anything about it, since now:

"All of our programs that involve suppliers have signed contracts, and that was the main problem that they had"

The List of Potential Witnesses

The Government
Jean Chretien - former prime minister
Paul Martin - prime minister, former minister of Finance
Alfonso Gagliano - former minister of Public Works, former ambassador to Denmark. Suing Paul Martin for $4.5 million.
                            Favourite quote: "I didn't do it. Nobody saw me do it. You can't prove I did it." Bart Simpson

David Dingwall - former minister of Public Works, president and CEO of the Royal Canadian Mint
Ralph Goodale - minister of Finance, former minister of Public Works
Don Boudria - former minister of Public Works, skiing vacation from Boulay
Jim Judd - secretary of the Treasury Board
Ran Quail - former deputy minister of public works who oversaw the troubled sponsorship program

"I took action; I launched the internal audit; when we had the results of the internal audit we took action immediately"

This action appears to have been referring the report to an audit committee of which he was a member, but no corrective action was taken.

"administrative errors" were all that was found by the audit

He pinned the lack of division of duties on the minister.

"The minister wanted Communications Co-ordination Services Branch to be the group responsible in totality for sponsorships"

"I don't have to be hit on the head. Those submissions (signed by Gagliano and Chretien) are important domcuments."

Myriam Bedard, gold medal Olympian biathelete, reported in a letter to Paul Martin on February 13, that, while at Via Rail, she had attempted to reduce some outrageous charges by Groupaction. For her efforts she was given the choice of leaving Via or transferring to Groupaction. A nice Machiavellian touch and speaks volumes about the relationship between the government and Groupaction.

When Pelletier was told about her story he said:

"I don't want to be mean, but this is a poor girl who deserves pity, who doesn't have a spouse, as far as I know. She is struggling as a single mother with economic responsibilities. Deep down, I think she is pitiful."

Pelletier's comments on the Auditor General's findings:

"transactions were sometimes marked by a certain lack of rigor" and that he had tightened "contract monitoring"

The Curious Collection - met September 20, 2000
Mario Lague - currently Paul Martin's communications director, formerly assistant secretary to the cabinet, former agent-general for Quebec in Mexico
Eddie Goldenberg - Chretien's senior policy adviser
Francoise Ducros - formerly Chretien's communications director, has low opinion of U.S. President
John Milroy - Chretien's legisative assistant
Jean Brault - president Groupaction, gave $102,290 to Liberals between 1997 & 2001
Jean Lafleur - president Lafleur Communications, gave $52,095 to Liberals between 1997 & 2001, subcontracted
work to son Eric Lafleur - owns Dezert Concept Marketing, clients - Business Development Bank & Radio-Canada
Claude Boulay - president Groupe Everest, gave $71,321 to Liberals between 1997 & 2001, wife a Liberal fundraiser

Others
Paul Coffin, Communication Coffin, arrested in September, facing 18 fraud charges, preliminary hearing scheduled for March 8, 2004, donated $25,161 to Liberals between 1997 and 2001
Gilles-Arndre Gosselin, Gosselin Strategic Communications, clients Treasury Board and Industry Canada, donated $28,433 to Liberals between 1997 & 2001.
Ken Polk - Chretien communications officer
Myriam Bedard - former Via employee, married, one child,given choice of leaving Via or Working for Groupaction after she complained about Via payments to Groupaction
Allan Cutler - public works employee, his complaints led to the 1996 Ernst & Young audit, abuses identified continued for another seven years. Cutler's career was destroyed.

 "I have had to unlearn 20 years of good contracting," he said in one entry to his diary from December 1995. "Falsification of information, payments to firms to conceal improper contracting . . . it never ends."

"the friends of our government owe more than $50 to each Canadian."

Discussing The Sponsorship Audit
On September 15, 2000, a meeting was held "to discuss the CCSB Audit Release Strategy" and prepare answers to potential questions and "the key message and the next steps". Participants included: Mario Lague; Eddie Goldenberg; Francoise Ducros; John Milroy; and two other Privy Council Office officials.

There was an ad hoc cabinet committee, chaired by Alfonso Gagliano, on government communications, but apparently the sponsorship program never made the agenda.

On September 21, 2000, Pierre Tremblay hosted a retreat at a golf course with The Curious Collection  to discuss the findings of an internal audit. (The audit report was issued October 11, 2000.) The audit had found double-billing, false reporting of work, unexplained spending, and reports from the Communications Co-ordination Services Branch that some files were highly political.

These two meetings show that the Chretien crew knew about the sponsorship problems. They did nothing to correct deficiencies or collect overbillings.. And they wanted it to continue.

On February 20, 2004, Mario Lague denied that he helped cover up the 2000 audit and was not present at the meeting on September 15, 2000. He says he sent a substitute. More curious is this comment:

"I have never taken part in anything that was designed to change a report from a team of internal auditors"

The Treasury Board received a report on the "Sponsorship Process Action Plan" from Alfonso Gagliano and his letter dated January 31, 2001, assuring:

"The required corrective measures have been completed"

Lest anyone think this unusual, consider that the Gun Registry spent huge amounts of money without a budget.
 

Ontario Grade 10 Literacy Test
Good morning children.
Today you are taking the Ontario Grade 10 Literacy Test.
If you do not pass this test you cannot graduate from high school and will be condemned as too stupid and uncomprehending to be a useful citizen of this province.

In 1996, an internal audit of a government advertising and sponsorship program (APORS), run by J. Charles (Chuck) Guite, conducted to investigate an employee complaint, found that the rules for bidding and awarding contracts were being broken.

The employee making the complaint was censured for reporting the truth.

A second audit in 1996, conducted by Ernst & Young, reported administrative and ethical problems.

Neither audit had to be reported outside of Public Works. No remedial action was taken

In 1997, J. Charles (Chuck) Guite, became responsible for an expanded program in the new Communication Co-ordination and Services Branch. This was a promotion. He reported only to the deputy minister.

Guite bragged that he had the ear, at least weekly, of Jean Pelletier, Chretien'c chief of staff.

Joe Clark, leader of the Conservatives at the time, asked in the House of Commons if it was Pelletier who had told Guite to break the rules.

In 2000, an internal audit found the sponsorship program, run by J. Charles (Chuck) Guite, reported mismanagement and inappropriate practices.

On September 15, 2000, a meeting was held concerning the audit. Paricipants include three from Chretien's office.

In 2003, Chretien quit rather than allow the auditor general to present her report about the program to parliament.

QUESTIONS

Are civil servants promoted because they serve the taxpayer?
Do internal audits result in improved management?
Is government policy what government says, or what government does?
Does Chretien have 'plausible deniability'?

Selected Shorts
Scouts Quebec applied for, and received, $250,000. The problem? The grant was for $600,000, which would seem to give somebody $350,000 for writing a cheque.

The Bluenose II Preservation Trust was to get $2,500,000. It received $359,000 through Lefleur Communications. Wonder where $2,141,000 went?

April Fools
Also March, May, etc.
On April 1 and March 31, the public accounts committee fought for the entire sessions. The witnesses, Sheila Fraser, Norman Steinberg sat waiting to be questioned but never were. The third witness, RCMP Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli didn't bother to show up.

It would have been polite if the committee had questioned the witnesses, and then held their brawls. The committee members say words like: effective; efficient; value-for-money; but don't have a clue how to deliver it themselves.

The final farce on March 31 was Dennis Mills regaling reporters with details of in-camera testimony at a public accounts committee in 2000. Mills should be found in contempt of Parliament.

The Dance of the Dingwall
Every answer is prefaced by: "That's a good question." but Dingwall provides no good answers.

What a government actually does is government policy, not what the government says it does. Guidelines are dusty books that sit on shelves to be pointed at when stupid behaviour is pointed out. Violations are always aberations.
So Dingwall congratulated himself with introducing wonderful guidelines and claims no responsibility for violations.

Meanwhile, Chuck Guite operates, cheerfully ignoring these newly introduced guidelines, and climbs up the civil service classification rungs.

Dingwall says the civil service had responsibility for choosing the advertising firms to be invited to bid, and they received no instruction from the politicians. So it is strange the the agencies chosen have a long record of giving to the Liberal party and had cozy relationships with various Liberal politicians.

Guite avoided written contracts. By doing so, he avoided subjecting the agencies to audits by Public Works or the Auditor-General. An audit clause is standard boilerplate in any government contract.

Various people have said that Guite had frequent access to the minister. Dingwall denies it.

Liberals In Action (or Liberal Inaction)
On the afternoon of  April 6, Marlene Jennings read into the record the record from the transcript of  the morning's activities.

Dennis Mills, with Jack Layton, his opponent in the coming election in the audience, spent his his alloted time in the afternoon reading into the record a list of organizations receiving funds from the sponsorship program, rather than questioning the witness, Jean Pelletier.

The Infinitely Gullible Reg Alcock
On April 12, Reg Alcock told Question Period, the one on CTV, not the one on Parliament Hill, that Ernst & Young had reduced the amount in question from $100 million to $13 million.When demands came to back up that claim, Alcock admitted that the information was second hand. Alcock's source was Dennis Mills. No such audit finding exists.

André Ouellet
According to Oullett, suspended chairman of Canada Post, the Auditor-General spent 4 months auditing Canada Post, found nothing, but had to come up with something on the crown corporation, refused to consider representations of Canada Post refuting the auditor's position, and presented findings in the final report that are not supported by the facts.

Chuck Guite (1)
Chuck  copied the Ouellet defense that the Auditor-General hasn't got it right. Documentation could not be kept that would tip of the separatists in Quebec if they made requests under freedom of information. But the activities of the sponsorship program were so wonderful that obviously taxpayers got value for money - Canada hasn't split.

Chuck has a number of conflicts:

• The files, he claims, were complete; a member of his staff sat with auditors for three and a half months and the auditors were provided will all the documentation to keep them happy - but the Public Works internal auditors, Ernst and Young, and the Auditor-General reported document deficiencies.
• In response to the audits by Public Works and Ernst and Young, Chuck prepared an action plan - but the problems continued, so nothing changed.
• To prevent documents from being available under freedom of information, documents weren't filed. This seems to indicate that the agencies were not required to send material to Guite, because, except for one invoice, subsequently replaced, that had been addressed to Jean Pelletier, he claims he did not shred any documents.
• Chuck could not give money directly to a crown corporation, specifically Via, so he routed money through an advertising agency. The agency raked off a fat fee for sending a cheque to Via. He took this route to accomplish what he was prohibited doing directly.

And after leaving government, Guite went to work for the advertising industry.

When Diane Marleau became minister of Public Works, Guite presented himself and told her that he reported to her. She disagreed. Rather than report to a lower level within the ministry, Guite contacted Jean Pelletier and began reporting to Chretien's office. This continued until Alfonso Gagliano took over. Given this close association of Guite and Chretien, it is exceedingly hard to believe that there was no political games.

After the Liberals had taken over in 1993, Guite expected to be axed. When he met the new minister, David Dingwall, he refused to discuss the operations of the Mulroney crew. Because Guite refused to rat on Mulroney, Dingwall kept Guite because he would not rat on the Liberals either.

Guite said that he had to carefully manage the allocation of assignments. Under government rules of operation, no one firm could receive more than 25% of total advertising contracts.  The fact that he had to manage the allocations indicates that there were several very favoured firms, very favoured firms which made donations to the Liberal party, and which had employees who worked on Liberal campaigns. And were not subject to rigorous contract compliance by Guite, like for example, retaining money when an event was cancelled. (Guite claims that he simply requested "greater visibility" at other events, presumably more flags and Canada banners.)

Defining Value-For-Money
Vickers and Benson dreamed up a tv program to extoll the Canadian way of life. It convinced the government that it would be a great idea to finance this production. Rights/copyright are retained by Vickers and Benson. Cost of production was $9 million.

Vickers and Benson claims that the payback was $50 million. It calculates this number based on the number of times the program was shown in China, and based on the advertising rates of Chinese TV. One might question the validity of advertising rates charged by communists to communists, not exactly rates determined by competitive influences. But, of course, Vickers and Benson didn't face competitive bidding to get the government contract.

What Gets Audited
The Auditor-General could not go into the advertising firms, but could go into the crown corporations. The Public Works audit team set up subsequent to the Auditor-General's report release could go into the advertising firms, but could not go into crown corporations.

This is the failure of government - turf battles between ministries, bureaucrats, and legislative oversight absolutely guarantee that nobody has the authority to go where the audit trail leads. Little wonder that nobody knows what is going on.

Public Works audited in 1996
An external audit firm, Ernst & Young, was hired in 1996
The Auditor-General filed a report in 2000
The Auditor General filed a report in 2003
A quick response team has been working in 2004 to review files
The Public Accounts Committee has hired an accounting firm KPMG
A judicial review will be made
The RCMP is investigating the advertising billings

F****** Liberals
On May 6, the Liberals strenuously objected to other members of the committee not asking the Auditor-General questions. (It was her third appearance) After the performance of Jennings and Mills, the Liberals have no grounds for complaint.

The Liberals have prevented witnesses from appearing before the committee, and will likely bring the inquiry to a premature conclusion by calling an election. Given their obstructionist behaviour, one must assume that Liberals know the truth and wish to suppress it. Just like the Somolia inuiry.

There seem to have been lots of liars and unconvicted perjurers amongs the witnesses, not to mention Dennis Mills apparent contempt of parliament releasing Guite's in camera testimony . Surely the government should allow the rest of the potential witnesses the opportunity to join the motley crew. And every voter should be anxious to hear from Jean Carle and Eddie Godenberg. But perhaps Paul Martin is trying to pacify the Chretienites within the Liberal party. By shutting down the inquiry those closest to Chretien, not to mention Chretien himself, will be spared testifying.

And we have yet to find out who was responsible for Guite receiving so much power without any division of duties or proper oversight. So far nothing has been heard the absolves Chretien, because guys like Goldenberg and Pelletier were up to their ears in it.

Unrelated Events
Groupaction was a minor player in government advertising prior to 1997.

In 1996, Alfonso Gagliano searches for advertising firms to provide free assistance to the Liberals in the next election. Two come on board: Groupaction and Groupe Everest.

In December, 1996, Groupaction receives a $330,000 contract to prepare a communications strategy for long gun registration. The Justice ministry never requested the contract and never received the strategy. Nevertheless, Groupaction is paid by Chuck Guite.

The election is held in April, 1997.

Groupaction receives more than $10 million in contracts in 1997. Subsequently, the total rose to more than $60 million, including Canadian Forces recruitment and the Nagano Olympics.

Groupaction gives the Liberals more than $120,000 in 10 years.

Groupaction uses as subcontractor Alain Renaud, who, according to The Globe and Mail, "had close ties to senior party officials". Also Richard Boudreault who, like Renaud, was a Liberal volunteer. Groupaction also employeed Chretien's niece.

Groupaction is paid $1.6 million to prepare reports on the sponsorship program. One is not found. Two are incomplete. Groupaction claims it was paid for oral advise to the government:

"The visibility program in which Groupaction was involved contributed efficiently to the preservation of Canadian Unity."

On May 10, 2004, Chuck Guite and Jean Brault, president of Groupaction Marketing Inc are arrested and charged with fraud. The Crown is proceeding with preferred indictments. That is, no preliminary inquiry will be held to determine if there is sufficient evidence;  On September 7 the trial will be set.

Quotations & Stuff

Jean Chretien
The Auditor-General and the RCMP, for me that's more than enough.

Bess Myerson
The accomplice to the crime of corruption is frequently our own indifference.

Robert L. Jackson
It is not the function of our government to keep the citizen from falling into error, it is the function of the citizen to keep the government from falling into error.

Winston Churchill
The truth is incontrovertible. Panic may resent it; ignorance may deride it; malice may distort it, but there it is.

The Webmaster
The best manager looks the auditor in the eye and says: "I'm running things right and you can't prove otherwise" and  uses the audit report to gain greater responsibility.

The good manager uses the audit as a guide to improving operations.

The incompetent or corrupt manager claims the audit report is completely wrong and the auditor doesn't understand the system.

Persian Proverb
An egg thief becomes a camel thief.

Italian Proverb
Public money is like holy water; every one helps himself to it.

Arab Proverb
If the camel one gets his noes in the tent, his body will soon follow.

Graham Greene
The man who offers a bribe gives away a little of his own importance; the bribe once accepted, he becomes the inferior, like a man who has paid for a woman.

Thomas Fuller
A thief passes for a gentleman when stealing has made him rich.

Joseph Conrad
The belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary; men alone are quite capable of every wickedness.

Ignacio Pagaza
The phenomenon of corrutpion is like the garbage. It has to be removed daily.

Brian Masters
Evil is something you recognize immediately: it works through charm.
 
 

Forty staff, 10 million pages, lawyers by the dozen playing gotcha, trying to crank up their billings, payable by taxpayers, by dragging in every irrelevant thing before the inquiry, and avoiding as much as possible who did what, when, under whose orders.

Via Rail
 Via's lawyer started by questioning the Auditor-General about her work history  (already public knowledge) and about her travels on Via Rail.

Via Rail is going to file, in addition, annual reports for 1999 - 2003. Via's lawyer wants to prove that the annual audits did not mention the sponsorship program, therefore there was absolutely nothing significantly wrong in Via and specifically with the sponsorship program participation because Via must advertise to attract customers.

Via lawyer is bucking for the title of Biggest Gibbering Idiot. He will have lots of competition.

Chuckie
Chuckie's lawyer would like to argue that Chuckie was only around for part of the sponsorship program, that the audit sample included a time period beyond Chuckie's reign, and that the Auditor-General's sampling was not representative of the sponsorship program, and that any deviations were isolated aberations of wonderful Chuckie management.

The Commissioner wasn't buying the proposition and said that unless the opposite could be proved, he would accept that the sample was respresentative. He must have learned the rule that "once is an accident, twice is a coincidence, three times indicates a pattern of behaviour". And a larger sample provided the basis for judging management.

The Golf Balls
The Adscam golf balls bearing the initials JC undoubtedly honour Canada's saviours, god the father and god the son, Jean Chretien and Jean Carle.

2005

 

Chretien's Lawyers Are Idiots
David Scott, Chretien's lawyer, objects to comments made by Justice Gomery to a journalist, including the crack that sticking the sponsorship program with the bill for golf balls bearing the Jean Chretien logo was "small town cheap". It would seem that the price should have been picked up by either Chretien or the Liberal party. He plans to make his objections on Monday, January 31, just in time for CBC's comedy night.

One looks forward to Scott explaining to Gomery (or a court) that a separatist receiving a Jean Chretien golf ball will immediately become federalist, and be delighted to pay the bill.

One looks forward to seeing the reaction of Canadians if the inquiry has to rehear testimony in front of a new commissioner.

Said Jean-Sebastien Gallant, another Chretien lawyer:
 

What Chretien's Lawyers Filed

Oullet Is A Cheap Date
Andre Oulett was wined and dined by Jean LaFleur on the closing night of the Montreal Canadiens at the  Forum - "an extraordinary experience". Subsequently, Oullet, as chairman of Canada Post, started millions in contracts to LaFleur, without competitive bidding.

Liberals, Oullet, and the Cuban Connection
Serge Savard, Liberal, retired NHL player, owns part of a Cuban hotel. Oullet tried to sent Canada Post employees to the hotels as a performance reward.
The hotel was deemed inadequate. Michele Tremblay's firm, Tremblay-Guittet Communications was hired to oversee a replacement trip to Mexico.  Tremblay, who circulates in Liberal circles, was paid $30,000 more than a competitor would have charged.

The Cozy Committee
When Oullet was made president of Canada Post, he reduced the committee looking at sponsorship proposals to two, including himself. One wonders, in the remote possibility that there was a split vote, whose opinion would prevail.

Oullet's Complaint
The Auditor General just doesn't understand that the Oullet management techniques are necessary to operate in the real business world. Oullet hasn't lived in the real world in 30 years.

Oullet Invokes JC
After Oullet was made Chairman of Canada Post, he collided with Georges Clermont, president of Canada Post. Clermont testified that Oullet was alway invoking the name of Jean Chretien as the authority, Oullet was only the messenger. Oullet had Canada Post buy 1,000 copies of Le Chant d l'Eau. Oullet had written the book's forward.

Oullet created wildly expensive launch parties when a new stamp went of sale. Clermont commented that the invitees were Oullet's crowd - the usual spongers. The parties, of course, were the work of three advertising and public relations firms. Clermont contradicted Oullet, who had testified that Clermont had supported the $1.7 million spent on the Maurice Richard TV series. Clermont said he never authorized the spending, considering unjustified to spend so much of the Canada Post advertising budget on a series primarily of interest to Quebec.

Dry Cleaning
Definition - Source: Jean Carle and Jean LeFleur - as described by Francois Beaudoin, fired President of the Business Development Bank - To have an external firm bill for what would not be considered a necessary business expense if purchased directly. In this instance, a  corporate box.

In 2004, the Edmonton Sun speculated that advertising firms paid entry fees for Liberal fund-raising golf tournaments, and the Liberals attending, although they had contributed no money, went home with a tax receipt for the entry fee.

Recovery
Not part of the inquiry: A lawyer, Andre Gauthier, was hired, at a fee that wandered into seven figures, to determine the extent of misspending. He identified $40 million in questionable spending in the sponsorship program and recommended suits against three advertising firms to recover $10 million. The firms are having a hard time,face criminal charges, and may not be able to pay judgements. But be assured, the lawyers will be getting rich.

Stephane Dion - former minister for national unity
"I never saw anyone changing his mind about Canadian unity because this person would have seen a sponsorship [ad],"
 

Adscam Bumper Sticker

Buy It Here

Gary Prouk - Partner Sebastian Consultancy - The Globe and Mail - Books - March 19, 2005
Lafleur Communications and Marketing and the rest of the so-called "Quebec agencies" have nothing to do with real advertising. Most are merely old-time hucksters flogging trash and trinkets from the trunks of their cars. The rest are graft groupies snorkelling in the patronage sewers of the federal government. None of them has ever created, nor would any of them ever recognize, really great advertising, even if it were delivered in the form of a high colonic.

Personalized golf balls, food court placemats, Maple Leaf-bedecked bird-sanctuary maps or swizzle sticks with flags do not figure in the sales and marketing outcomes of multi-billion-dollar corporations clashing in capitalisms trenches.

From The Brains Who Brought You Adscam
May 2003 document from the federal Public Works department, pointing out the many ways staff can make things easier to understand.
"The linear approach to communications must yield to the fragmentation of information, the sheet of paper to the monitor, the static nature to dynamism and interaction."

Pigs Fly
Pigs fly. Michael Jackson claims to have been molested by boys. After Brault testimony, RCMP asked by Liberals to investigate if they are the victims of fraud.

     "It's clear that the Liberal party's interests are fully in play before us and that the party's reputation risks being affected by what I have heard so
      far and maybe by what I have yet to hear," Justice John Gomery

The Liberals were given standing at the inquiry, which means that a  lawyer, that is, a Liberal lawyer,  will be sitting through the proceedings, paid for by thee and me.

And The PQ Too
The Ottawa Sun reported that an unnamed Groupaction executive said that the PQ received $90,000 over two years in exchange for a $4.5 million ad contract with the Quebec liquor board, and that the money contributed by individual employees to get around Quebec law which prohibits corporations from making political contributions.

Lifting Brault's Veils
According to Jean Brault's testimony released by Judge Gomery

$1 million kicked back to Liberals for $172 million in advertising contracts
Secret meetings
Fake paper trails
Unmarked envelopes
Cash payments
Bogus employees on payroll - actually Liberal workers paid by Groupaction and billed to the sponsorship program
Ficticious billings
Liberals, including Chretien's brother, Gaby, paid for nonexistant "consulting"
Ailain Renaud, Liberal fundraiser, paid $63,000 for nothing
Jacques Corriveau's firm paid $500,000 for nothing

Public Works Minister Scott Brison  "allegations." "Repeating (allegations) over and over and over again does not transform them into facts.''

Doug Mitchell, lawyer for the Liberal party told reporters in Montreal: "The Quebec wing was $3 million in debt. This is hardly in keeping with assertions that the party was receiving substantial benefit through inappropriate means."

 Globe and Mail

Discrepency - What They Say And What They Do
"If government is to play a positive role in society, as it must, honesty and integrity in our political institutions must be restored."

From Governing with Integrity, Chapter 6 of the federal Liberal party's 1993 election platform.

Cogent Comment
"Anybody can do something stupid. Thinking it up - that's the genius."
Winston Rothchild, Rothchild's Sewage and Septic Sucking Services
 

Tax Fraud???
Benoit Corbeil, former director-general of the Liberal Quebec organization, says that in the 2000 election he took cash from Jean Brault and paid "volunteers".
The volunteers included accountants and lawyers. If they did not declare this cash income and pay tax on it, they should be booted out of their professional organizations. If any lawyers subsequently became judges, they should be fired.

Witnesses

The Real Cost of Adscam
Adscam cost $250 million plus the Gomery Inquiry. Paul Martin is spending $4.6 billion to buy Jack Layton. So the cost is now around $5 billion, about $170 per person, or $680 for a family of four. $5 billion is the amount that the national debt will not be reduced by. The increase in interest expense loaded on the taxpayers, at, for example, 5%, is $230 million a year,  in perpetuity, assuming rates don't go up. So anybody who thinks that Adscam is a tiny scandal of limited financail impact doesn't understand these developments.
 
 

Another Cogent Comment
Red Green: You don't borrow two million dollars to solve a five thousand dollar problem.

Harold: That's the way the government does it

NDP Demands

• Building more public housing - The more buildings the government owns, the more they must spend to maintain them. This is not a one shot expenditure
• More money for foreign aid - The government reviewed foreign aid, decided to concentrate on a few nations, including Pakistan, a country that seems to have lots of money for making atomic bombs. Canadian are thrilled to be of assistance
• A pension protection fund - To benefit trade union members who have contracts with defined benefit pensions, not defined pension contributions. Companies (Stelco, Air Canada) go broke trying to comply with the contract terms. Thanks to Martin, the people not in this select group will be even worse off as their pensions are taxed to pay for this boondoggle that inserts government into labour contracts that one signatory finds unsatisfactory years later.
• Increased support for public transit - If public transit is such a boon, far cheaper than car ownership, why don't the users pay the full shot? Isn't it a bit much to ask the people of, for example, Moosenee, to pay for Toronto Transit?

.

Golf balls
Golf club covers
Swiss army money clips
Pewter spoons
Parasols
Timex watches
More expensive watches blessed by Aline Chretien
Expenses for three french speaking soccer teams from France, Vietnam and Western Canada while playing in Quebec
Banners
Flags
Billboards
Bluenose Jackets
Christmas decorations
Book with forward by Luc Oullet
Alfonso Gagliano's biography
Propaganda film shown in China
Plaque in Italy
T-shirts
Toques
Ties
Corporate boxes
Admissions to the Montreal Grand Prix for civil servants & politicians
Food
Booze
Limos
Horses
Horse Trailers
Donations to the Liberals
Liberal election workers salaries
Creating Liberal fund raisers

It therefore follows that, since Chretien did not require project management to reform and follow good business practices, he would not be surprised that bad management practices continued. Chretien is responsible, both in theory - he was the head of the government - and in fact - that he did nothing to correct the known deficiencies.

Cogent Comment III
You have a bunch of low-level people doing some horrific things, and I think they were led there by policies at the top that condoned it, even if they didn't explicitly order it. That is often the way for leaders not to take responsibility for what's otherwise done in their names.
Alex Gibney - Director - Enron: The Smartest Guys In The Room; The Trials of Henry Kissinger

The Chinese Separatists Stymied By Adscam
"Dashan & Friends in Canada" is a  26-part TV series shown on China's state television courtesy of Adscam.This series wasn't something that the politicans or bureaucrats dreamed up. It was sold to the government by Vickers for a mere $10 million.

What the public does not recognize is that a whole industry exists devoted to dreaming up screwball projects purportedly advancing government policies. If the government bites, a phony bidding competition may take place, where the originator has the inside track because the potential bidders have limited time to come up with a better version.

To date, there has been no successful vote in China to separate from Canada. The program is a brilliant triumph.

Arrogant Liberal
Gagliano's lawyer,  Pierre Fournier, defended the plaque in Italy, arguing that it was a way to keep Italian-Canadian voters loyal to the Liberals.

Liberals = Canada. Canada = Liberals. It works for them. Does it work for you?

On the subject of the China TV series: "anything that would keep the immigrant vote on the `non' side would be part of the national unity program, would you not?"

So there you have it, folks. The Liberals plan to flood Quebec with new Chinese imigrants to swing the next referendum Canada's way. That must be the plan. How would immigrants already here see China's television programs?

The World According to Guite
The government in power will design the policy to arrive at its end.

A campaign is run by who? It is run by communications agencies, advertising agencies. And after the campaign is over and they have won, they want to retourner l'ascenseur (the favour returned.)

What A Concept
Auditor-General Shelia Fraser reported to the Gomery Inquiry about a review of advertising contracting within the federal government. Guess What? Guite was just following the normal operating procedures. Fraser recommended that for the entire government:

• The system must be transparent and easy to follow, allowing ad agencies, government officials and the public to understand how selections are made.
• There must be an end to the cozy culture in which companies that come second in one bid assume they'll come first in the next.
• The processes must include a paper trail that ensures that systems and policies are followed.

The fucked-up system exists because the politicans want a fucked-up system. The next time a federal Liberal starts say words like: effective; efficient; value-for-money; remember - he hasn't a clue about what he is talking about even if his political life depended on it, which, perhaps, it does.

He's Got It

"There have been, it seems to me, well-documented instances of mismanagement . . . and I didn't see that they had any consequences on the    employment of anybody"
                                                                                                                                                                                                      Justice Gomery

Knowing how government works to reach desired ends, one might suspect that thousands of contracts were inspected, 350 pasted muster and were declared to be the sample. The Inquiry has already heard that in 1995 Chuck Guite told Treasury Board president Art Eggleton that 97% of contracts awarded in the second half of 1994 were in compliance.

On May 16, Sheila Fraser, Auditor-General, on a review of advertising contracts throughout the government between 1998 and 2003.

"There were also many probems in advertising activities whether in the selection of agencies or the management of contracts"
"Canadians expected better when public funds are spent."

"Is that really urgency or is that not just poor management? When everything becomes urgent, that's an indication of bad management."

"The review result resembles results from a Stalinist election - you got 100%."

"It seems when there's 100-percent compliance, ther's something that doesn't work. Where are the weaknesses in your system?"

Impotent Fixers
According to news reports,  lawyer Peter Doody told reporters that Ralph Goodale, now finance minister, and Liberal MP Don Boudria will both back Chretien's assertion he gave them marching orders to get to the bottom of the scandal in 2002. This, of course, leads to the question: How come the Auditor-General was still finding problems (see above), and why didn't Chretien act earlier

    Gomery smiled as he said there's a "danger [that] I will have evidence that the Liberal Party is a marvellous political party."

Taxpayers Reimburse Themselves - Maybe
The Liberals have set up a $750,000 trust fund to reimburse taxpayers if it is proven that sponsorship program money was used to finance their election campaigns. But where did the $750,000 come from? From the taxpayers. One of Chretien's final contribtions  was to provide each political party meeting criteria with money from the Treasury, that is, the taxpayers. So, the Liberal Party, the largest beneficiary, is quite able to give back the taxpayers' money, at some time in the future.

The Chretien system insures that Liberals will continue to collect the largest chunk of cash, no matter how annoyed the voters may be. Wouldn't  a better system be that the taxpayer could direct his portion to the party of his choice, with a split according to popular vote awarded only for the those tax forms not expressing a choice?  Taxpayers could finance even the smallest party, in the hope that some party with ethics and management competence might arise.
 

Justice Gomery - on Canada Post getting money from Public Works sponsorship program for a stamp commemorating the 1972 Canada-Russia hockey series

"It is particularly ludicrous to think that the government of Canada needed to pay Canada Post to persuade the latter that it should identify itself as a federal institution to Canadians," the report says, adding: "Every stamp bears the word Canada."