Canadian Adscam Scandel: $300,000 in Cash Goes to Liberal Party?

The Globe and Mail reports today that $300,000 in cash has gone from Adscam sources to Liberal Party electoral efforts:

Senior Liberal organizers allegedly showered about $300,000 in cash on Quebec ridings held by the opposition during the 1997 federal election campaign, The Globe and Mail has learned.

Michel Béliveau, a close supporter of former prime minister Jean Chrétien, made the allegation in preliminary interviews with members of the Gomery inquiry into the sponsorship program.

Mr. Béliveau is scheduled to testify today about allegedly receiving the cash from Jacques Corriveau, another Liberal supporter and close friend of Mr. Chrétien, who got millions through the sponsorship program in the 1990s.

The testimony would be the first by a Liberal official describing illicit cash transactions in contravention of Canada’s electoral laws. It builds on allegations from Jean Brault, former president of Groupaction Marketing Inc., who told the inquiry of secret payments to Liberal officials in the 1990s and early 2000s — including payments to Mr. Corriveau he was told were “for the cause.”

Mr. Béliveau was the director-general of the Quebec wing of the Liberal Party when he allegedly asked for the money from Mr. Corriveau.

Mr. Béliveau said he later received $75,000 to $100,000 in an envelope full of $20 and $100 bills from Mr. Corriveau.

“Only Mr. Corriveau and Mr. Béliveau were in the room. Mr. Béliveau did not provide him with a receipt,” a confidential record of the interview says.

Mr. Béliveau said the rest of the money — $200,000 — was given to another Liberal organizer in Eastern Quebec, former provincial Liberal minister Marc-Yvan Cote.

His allegation contradicts the Martin government’s position that the problems in the program were caused by a “parallel group” of rogue Liberals.

The cash was used to prop up Liberal organizations in “orphan ridings,” Mr. Béliveau said, referring to the expression used in Liberal circles to describe ridings held by other parties. The ridings were evaluated before the campaign and found to be short of cash, he said.

Mr. Béliveau said he was unaware at the time that Mr. Corriveau was acting for some of the biggest recipients of sponsorship funds. Over the years, Mr. Corriveau earned almost $8-million in sponsorship subcontracts, often through fake or inflated invoices, according to evidence at the Gomery inquiry.

“Mr. Beliveau points out that he never thought the money could come from a governmental program. Mr. Corriveau never informed him of the origin of the funds,” the document says.

The secret report, called a “will say,” has been circulated to the various parties that are officially involved in the Gomery inquiry’s proceedings. Mr. Béliveau is not bound to stick to those statements when he testifies under oath.

Still, his allegation follows other claims of massive transfers of sponsorship cash into the hands of Liberal organizers.

Mr. Béliveau’s successor, Benoît Corbeil, has said in news-media interviews that he once received tens of thousands of dollars in cash from Groupaction to pay off Liberal organizers during the 2000 election. Mr. Corbeil is also high on the list of coming witnesses at the Gomery inquiry, where he has promised to name the recipients of the cash payments.

In addition, Mr. Brault has told the inquiry that he gave about $1-million in various contributions to the Liberals between 1996 and 2002, including tens of thousands of dollars in cash to another Liberal fundraiser, Joe Morselli.

The former Groupaction president said he also paid about $500,000 in fees to Mr. Corriveau, who had allegedly told Mr. Brault the money was going to the Liberal Party.

In his appearance before the inquiry last month, Mr. Corriveau rejected all allegations of illicit payoffs, saying he only made officially registered donations to the Liberal Party and helped sell tickets to party events.

“I was known as a good ticket salesman,” he said.

Mr. Morselli is also set to appear before the commission, where he will be asked about the alleged cash transactions with Mr. Brault.

Mr. Béliveau, who is now retired, is a psychologist who long worked in the school system in the Mauricie region of Quebec, where he first met Mr. Chrétien in 1965. Among other partisan activities, he ran local election campaigns for Mr. Chrétien on many occasions.

Named director-general of the Liberal Party’s office in Montreal in 1996, Mr. Béliveau remained in that position until 1998. He said he never informed any of his political superiors about the cash transactions.

“Mr. Béliveau did not inform the electoral commission nor the political minister for Quebec of these transfers of funds, nor any minister nor the prime minister nor the party’s board of directors,” the document says.

Mr. Béliveau added that he takes full responsibility for his actions, which were in part fuelled by the Liberal Party’s financial difficulties in Quebec at the time.

“According to him, the management position that he held calls on him to assume the consequences today,” the document says.

Captain Ed over at Captain’s Quarters has this:

…If Béliveau testifies as predicted, it will mark the first real threads of electoral fraud perpetrated by the Liberals through the Adscam monies. So far, the Gomery Inquiry has documented plenty of personal enrichment at the expense of the Canadian taxpayers, and even Liberal Party featherbedding at favored ad agencies, but this will demonstrate that the primary purpose of Adscam was to get unregulated cash into the hands of Liberal Party leaders in order to gain an unfair, and unregulated, advantage over the other parties.

Béliveau’s recollection that he received the money from Corriveau and from provincial Liberal minister Marc-Yvan Cote makes it more difficult for Martin to pretend that a small, breakaway contingent of Liberal ministers created the entire Adscam issue. That cash went directly to ridings in Quebec held by other parties and which chronically ran short on cash for the Liberals. The sudden infusion of a large amount of money had to be noticed by many within the party structure, especially since funds weren’t coming from any other source. That would appear to implicate a large portion of the Liberal Party in Quebec with responsibility to keep the books for election contributions and outlays, and not just a couple of renegade Grits playing cowboy.

The picture keeps getting more focused even as the conspiracies continue to widen…

The Liberal Party hacks are as dirty as their bosses.

Flap says sparks will fly next week after everyone’s return from Europe.