The Globe and Mail has the story regarding the Canadian House of Commons debate on a motion by the Conservative Party which calls on the Public Accounts committee “to recommend that the government resign because of its failure to address the deficiencies in governance of the public service.”

Ottawa — The House of Commons erupted in a fiery debate over an opposition effort to topple the Liberal government as early as Tuesday.

The Conservatives tabled a motion Monday that calls for the government to resign. The Speaker of the House ruled it was in order despite Liberal arguments to the contrary.

Still, it’s unlikely the government will consider the vote a matter of confidence.

The Liberals had already dismissed a similar motion as a procedural matter and said they would continue governing even if they lost that vote, which is to come May 18.

But the Conservatives and Bloc Québécois insist that Tuesday’s votes will have dire political consequences.

“The Liberals must admit that the hour of truth is upon us,” said Bloc MP Michel Guimond.

“If the government loses the vote the government loses power. Full stop.

“And the Prime Minister would have to go back to the Governor-General,” to ask that an election be called.

The motion was debated in the Commons on Monday and the opposition says it will come to a vote Tuesday.

Stay Tuned!

Prime Minister Paul Martin walks past opposition leaders Jack Layton, Gilles Duceppe and Stephen Harper at a Second World War remembrance ceremony in Amersfoort, Netherlands, Monday.

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.

Jacques Corriveau, former president of Pluri-Design, answers questions about one of his invoices during his testimony at the Gomery commission

CNews Canada has the following pieces on the events today in the Gomery Inquiry:
PM, Manley knew of plan, says Guite
Brault, Guite fraud trial delayed
Guite earned over $1M from ad firms
Gagliano aide replaced Guite
Chretien’s office allegedly awarded deals
Guite says contracts ‘politically driven’
Guite’s credibility the key issue
Chretien’s wife picked souvenir watches
Tories say new testimony shows Martin linked to sponsorship scandal

Key players in the federal sponsorship program – including Jacques Corriveau and Jean Lafleur – were apparently discussing sponsorship-like events months before the program officially existed, new evidence at the Gomery inquiry indicates.

Documents and testimony also suggest then-prime minister Jean Chretien’s office was advised of the potential projects in April 1995.

A memo sent that month carries a heading labelled “Jacques Corriveau” and refers to the fact that a list of projects had been submitted to Jean Carle, Chretien’s director of operations.

It’s not clear whether the list, including proposed funding for nine projects totalling $2.3 million, was submitted directly by Corriveau or by somebody else.

Among the proposed recipients were the Montreal Grand Prix, the Expos baseball club, the Toronto Molson Inday car race, and a number of other oganizations that later figured prominently in the sponsorship program.

Read the rest here.

Captain Ed over at Captain’s Quarters has discovered redacted testimony regarding Chuck Guité’s testimony at the Gomery Inquiry:

….So let’s make sure everyone is clear on this. Brault works through Chuck Guité in order to make sure that he gets as much access to government contracts through the former Liberal minister. He pays Guité hundreds of thousands of dollars, income liable for taxation. Suddenly Guité asks for a loan based on a deal closing that will result in large fees coming from Groupaction so that he can buy a boat without incurring some sort of capital-gains tax, and Brault gives him another $25,000 for a year at below-market interest. (Brault could have made more money opening a savings account.) Not only did Guité skip paying Brault even the interest due on the loan, however, he continued to demand fees from Groupaction far exceeding the amount of the loan.

Does it occur to anyone that this money not only avoided taxes, but also could easily have avoided scrutiny as a political payoff?

At any rate, the Canadian taxman will certainly take notice of this money now. It looks like Guité may need to file an amended tax return for 2001 sometime in the next few months.

There is no reason to ban this testimony or any of it from publication. IT is obvious to Flap that these guys have cut a deal with the prosecutors and are ready to spill the beans on the Liberal Party and Paul Martin.

They sold their souls to the comapny store and now are willing to sell out their former sugar daddies in order to save their own sorry asses.

Stay tuned…..it will only get better.

The Globe and Mail has the latest on the Canadian Adscam Scandel and the involvement of Prime Minister Paul Martin:

When he was still finance minister, Paul Martin was one of three cabinet ministers who intervened to make sure that a Toronto ad agency wouldn’t lose its lucrative government contracts if it was to be sold to a foreign conglomerate, the Gomery inquiry has been told.

The startling claim linking the prime minister to the Adscam scandal was made at the inquiry headed by Mr. Justice John Gomery by Chuck Guité, the former head of the federal sponsorship program.

Mr. Guité’s testimony last week was under publication ban until Judge Gomery lifted the embargo Wednesday. A Quebec Superior Court judge temporarily placed the ban back on his testimony but later allowed the details to be published.

Martin spokesman Scott Reid dismissed the testimony as a third-hand — and false — allegation.

“The prime minister never involved himself in the contracting process — never involved himself in the determination of contract awards. Period,” Mr. Reid told The Canadian Press

While troubling, the allegation against Mr. Martin is based on hearsay from someone who has since died and cannot be called before the inquiry.

However, any allegation involving Mr. Martin will likely be seized on by opposition politicians keener on attacking the current prime minister than talking about the more substantial accusations against his predecessor’s entourage.

Beyond the allegation involving Mr. Martin, Mr. Guité’s testimony was a sweeping indictment of a federal procurement system which, he said, was geared toward rewarding friends of the party in power with profitable ad contracts….

Read the rest here.

CTV has the story here.

Update #1

Captain Ed over at Captain’s Quarter’s has this.

The handwriting is on the wall: Paul Martin is DIRTY in Adscam.

The people of Canada are entitled to vote on his government. Look for the no-confidence vote push next week when government leaders return from Europe.

A mid-summers night dream(election) = a new Prime Minister.

Prime Minister Paul Martin tells the national press corps that he would like to attend VE-Day ceremonies in Holland.

Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin has agreed to attend a V-E ceremony Monday for Canadian soldiers if opposition leaders agree to attend with him.

Read the story here:

There may be a ceasefire in the battle over an election call.

Prime Minister Paul Martin has won agreement from all three opposition leaders to attend VE-Day ceremonies in Holland on Monday.

Martin said he would only go if all of the opposition party leaders go with him, to avoid the possibility of a vote in the Commons that would force an election. The leaders of the Conservatives, NDP and Bloc Quebecois all say they’re prepared to attend under those conditions.

Martin had originally planned to go to honour Canadian veterans in Holland, but said last week he changed his mind when opposition leaders and MPs began to cancel.

The numbers in the House of Commons are so close that every vote will count in any move to bring the minority Liberal government down, an attempt the Conservatives have promised to make soon.

Martin will face an election this year – I suppose timing is everything.

Frankly, I don’t think it will matter.

The Canadian people are fed up and will change the government when given an election.

The Globe and Mail has this story about Inky Mark, a Conservative MP, who says that the Liberal Party is trying to woo him into their party:

Conservative MP Inky Mark says the Liberal party is trying to woo him to their party by offering him an ambassadorship or Senate position.

He’s one of four MPs that deputy Tory leader Peter MacKay says have been approached by the Liberals in the past few days.

Mr. Mark told globeandmail.com in an interview Tuesday that he was approached by an unnamed cabinet minister who offered him a position in a phone call last Friday.
He said the caller asked him what he was looking for in politics.

“I wasn’t sure what he was talking about,” Mr. Mark said in an interview from Ottawa.

Then the caller, who he wouldn’t name because he said it was a private discussion, “suggested maybe I should consider being an ambassador.”

The caller told Mr. Mark he should think seriously about it and call back, despite the fact that Mr. Mark repeatedly declined the offer, saying he was not interested. The 57-year-old Manitoban, who said he never imagined he’d be in politics this long–he has been an MP since 1997–said he told the caller his next move was likely to “go home and retire.”

The Liberals also implied that a Senate position could come his way, Mr. Mark said.

If the Liberals were to bring a few Conservatives to their side, or taking a few of their MPs by appointing them to ambassadorships, it would help their cause. They will need at least the support of the NDP, all their party members and the three independent MPs to tie a vote on a no-confidence motion in the House of Commons. That would give them 153 votes. They would need at least 154 to overturn the motion, which could be cast by the Speaker of the House. The Bloc Québécois and the Conservatives together have 153 votes.

But a spokeswoman for the Prime Minister, Melanie Gruer, said that the Prime Minister is not in favour of using appointments in order to gain enough MPs to win votes.

The Liberals vigorously denied offering appointments to anyone.
Treasury Board Reg Alcock told CBC Newsworld Tuesday that Mr. Mark’s claims are “outrageous” and no such offer was made.

He said the only two Liberals authorized to make such an offer would be Prime Minister Paul Martin or himself, and neither of them did so.

“There is absolutely no way that this Prime Minister will authorize any undertaking of that sort, period. Will not happen. Has not happened. Is not going to happen. Period!” he said outside the Commons.
Ms. Gruer told globeandmail.com that while the Liberals have the “greatest deal of respect” for Mr. Mark, they’re also aware that the Tory MP has been “fishing” for a Senate or ambassador position for some time.

Mr. Mark, however, insisted he was telling the truth–that the Liberals came to him. “Why would I fish for this? I’ve got a solid base at home, I’ve been elected three times in a row. I’m of the age to go home and pack it up.”

He suggested that one reason the Liberals would want him for an ambassador post is because of his years of experience on Parliament Hill.

Meanwhile, Mr. MacKay maintained throughout the day that three other offers have been made to the Tories by the Liberals.
“Four people have confided in me that approaches were made, including Mr. Mark,” he said.

Mr. Alcock challenged Mr. MacKay to name names.

“If he has information of that sort, put it on the table. Identify people.”
Opposition Leader Stephen Harper said the Liberals are desperate to cling on to power and are making the overtures to try to help their cause.

On Monday night, the Conservatives held an emergency caucus meeting. They came out of it saying they were united on a decision to bring down the government as soon as possible, either by voting against the budget or by bringing forward another no-confidence motion in the government as soon as possible.

Some Conservative MPs, including Belinda Stronach and Mr. MacKay, however, have expressed concern about going to the polls this spring.

Ms. Gruer called Mr. Harper’s decision to kill the budget and force an election “disappointing.”

She said the Tories should respect the Prime Minister’s good faith gesture of offering to hold an election once Mr. Justice John Gomery delivers his report on the sponsorship probe, expected by December.

“Canadians are entitled to the truth.”

Ms. Gruer didn’t have information on when a vote on the budget might come but noted that the opposition parties will still have all their allotted opposition days before the session ends in June.

Sounds to me the Liberals are playing the old fashioned game of quid pro quo.

And you would have thought an impending no confidence vote would have been all that is troubling Paul Martin, eh?

Prime Minister says he and Bono are still good friends despite being booed

Paul Martin says he and rock-star Bono are still tight despite the fact that U2 fans booed the prime minister at a concert earlier this week.

It’s no rift,” Martin insisted Friday after reporters asked him questions about the sour reaction.

“We are very, very good friends.”

U2 opened its Vertigo tour Thursday night to a sold-out audience in Vancouver. During the show lead-singer Bono, who has been pushing Martin for more Third World aid, encouraged fans to call Martin and tell him that he is not doing enough.

Fans booed Martin, whipped out their cell phones and started dialling.

Bono has repeatedly challenged Martin to deliver on a commitment to raise Canada’s spending on foreign aid to 0.7 per cent of the gross domestic product by 2015.

Canada now commits less than 0.3 per cent of its annual gross domestic product – about $3.3 billion.

Martin said Friday he supports the increased spending but he was not prepared to give a time line for when that will happen until he is sure that Canada can afford it.

He pointed out that Canada is already a leader in Third World debt relief and support for countries struggling with
AIDS.

“I said to him, ‘Look, you have had three objectives. I’ve delivered on two and it will take me a little longer on the third’,” Martin said.

He said he planned to go to the U2 concert when the band comes through Ottawa.

“Am I going? Absolutely,” Martin said. “I’ve actually said that I may get up there and actually sing. Ticket sales have dropped way off.”

Bono did have some good things to say about Martin, calling him a “great leader for Canada” and that he would listen to the people if they spoke loud enough.

Bono and Martin have had a cosy relationship since Martin was finance minister and the U2 frontman lobbied the G-8 countries to increase their foreign aid. Bono showed up at the Liberal convention where Martin was named party leader in 2003.

Wonder if Bono will campaign for him in this summer’s no confidence election?

Bloomberg is reporting that Canadian Conservative Party Stephen Harper will seek a no-confidence vote to topple Prime Minister Paul Martin’s Liberal government. This will mean a second national election within a year:

Canadian Conservative Party Leader Stephen Harper said he will seek a no-confidence vote to topple Prime Minister Paul Martin’s Liberal government, trying to force the country’s second election in a year.

Following a one-week parliamentary recess, Harper convened a meeting of his opposition caucus in Ottawa this evening to discuss how to bring down the minority government amid a corruption scandal over the misuse of government funds in Quebec.

Harper told reporters after the meeting that he hasn’t set a date for a no-confidence vote, and vowed not to support the federal budget when the Liberals bring it to the House of Commons for a vote.

The Canadian dollar fell 3.8 percent in April, the world’s worst performing currency, after the Liberals said they would boost spending in a bid to cling to power, and amid concern the Conservatives will force a national vote within weeks that may lead to another minority government.

The Conservatives, the largest opposition party, have the support of the separatist Bloc Quebecois. The two parties don’t have enough votes to defeat the 10-month-old government, and need the support of at least one of two independents, who haven’t indicated how they will vote.

Finally….. bring it on!

In other Adscam Scandel developments, Brault, Guité seek delay in criminal trials. The Globe and Mail reports:

Lawyers for Jean Brault and Chuck Guité have requested that their clients’ joint trial on fraud and conspiracy charges be delayed until September.

Jury selection is currently scheduled for June 6 but lawyers for the two men say the sponsorship inquiry will still be sitting at that time.

A judge will decide Wednesday whether to grant the request.

Ad man Mr. Brault has already testified at the inquiry, while Mr. Guité, who ran the sponsorship program in the late 1990s, continued his testimony Monday under a publication ban.

They were charged in connection with alleged improprieties at the program.

The men’s criminal proceedings have already been delayed. Jury selection originally was set for Monday but was put off last month until June 6 after lawyers argued May was too close to their clients’ appearances at the sponsorship inquiry, led by Mr. Justice John Gomery.

Meanwhile, Judge Gomery will likely announce Tuesday or Wednesday whether a publication ban on testimony before the inquiry provided by Mr. Guité late last week and early this week will be lifted.

Judge Gomery had already lifted a publication ban on Mr. Brault’s testimony in February when he appeared before the inquiry. Mr. Brault told the inquiry that he had been asked by Jacques Corriveau, a Liberal activist who earned nearly $8-million in disputed sponsorship subcontracts, to kick back sponsorship money to him as secret donations to the Liberal Party.

The testimony of advertising executive Paul Coffin last week was also under a publication ban so it wouldn’t prejudice his impending fraud trial.

The first person to be indicted after the RCMP began investigating the program, Mr. Coffin is to face trial starting on June 6 on 18 counts of fraud.

A onetime Conservative supporter, Mr. Coffin told the inquiry last week that his firm, Communication Coffin, made a quarter of a million dollars for doing little more than being a front for other companies that handled federal advertising campaigns.

If the publication ban is lifted (as it should be) the Canadian people will have access to the full story of the Adscam Scandel. The government will change.

Captain Ed over at Captain’s Quarters has this to say regarding the lifting of the publication ban. Read it here.

Update # 1

CTV Canada has this story on the bold moves of the Conservative Party.

Captain Ed over at Captain’s Quarters weighs in here:

Harper had a number of difficulties in getting to the point where a no-confidence vote could be introduced, and he’s not there yet. Earlier, of course, the NDP aligned itself with Paul Martin in order to block Harper’s momentum towards elections. Before that, the Liberals postponed all but one Opposition Day. Monday, Liberal MPs led by Tony Valeri apparently blocked an attempt for Harper to get one through to the floor, wanting to force Harper to use his only guaranteed Opposition Day to call the vote. That will create summer elections, which apparently all parties dislike and the electorate will likely resent, to the Tories’ disadvantage.

Harper has few options. Waiting for Gomery to finish his report will mean almost a year between now and the next election, and his own hesitation will amount to a tacit endorsement of the notion that the Adscam corruption did not rise to a level requiring the removal of the government. With the Liberals pulling out all stops to keep a no-confidence vote from being tabled despite the inevitability of the effort, he needs to take advantage of the limited openings he will get. A midsummer election may be the price he has to pay. It appears that his caucus understands this as well.

Harper should not wait for the Gomery Inquiry to finish. A mid-summer’s election is better than allowing the Liberal Party to continue in power.