Posted on 04/06/2005 1:59:52 PM PDT by Allan
Chretien challenge of Guite fast-tracked
Jim Brown Canadian Press
Tuesday, April 05, 2005
Former Prime Minister Jean Chretien. (CP PHOTO/Tom Hanson)
OTTAWA -- Federal Court has put Jean Chretien's challenge to the federal sponsorship inquiry on a legal fast track, in the hope of resolving the dispute before Justice John Gomery starts writing a final report.
The court agreed Tuesday to set June 7 for the start of hearings on the former prime minister's claim that Gomery is biased and should be removed as head of the inquiry. By judicial standards, that's speedy action for a case that was filed in early March. Government lawyers had argued that the matter deserved priority handling.
But the new timetable did nothing to calm the heated political debate over Chretien's motives in the affair.
Critics accuse him of mounting a thinly veiled campaign to undermine all the evidence gathered by the commission in seven months of hearings.
That would force a new judge to start over from scratch, said Deputy Conservative Leader Peter MacKay.
"It will be back to square one," MacKay told reporters.
"Mr. Chretien, if he were successful, would not only derail this commission, it would delay any findings and it would require the beginning of a brand new commission."
Peter Doody, one of Chretien's lawyers, denied that was the aim of the former prime minister.
He insisted it would be possible for a new judge to pick up wherever Gomery left off - even if that meant writing a report based on testimony heard by somebody else.
"We're not trying to stop any of the evidence being heard," said Doody.
"What we're trying to do is ensure that whoever writes the report and makes the findings is not somebody about whom there is an apprehension of bias."
The June 7 hearing in Federal Court will come nearly three weeks after Gomery is scheduled to hear his last witness on May 19.
Lawyers who appeared before the inquiry are to make their final written and oral arguments by the end of June.
Gomery is supposed to deliver a report on his factual findings at the start of November, and a second report with recommendations for political and bureaucratic reforms in mid-December.
Doody acknowledged it wouldn't be the "optimum" solution to have a new judge write those reports based on evidence heard by Gomery.
But he insisted it would be better than leaving a judge in charge who is "not seen to be independent and impartial. That destroys the whole process."
Gomery was appointed by Paul Martin, Chretien's successor as prime minister, to investigate the sponsorship program in which Ottawa spent $250 million trying to raise the federal profile in Quebec and combat separatism.
An estimated $100 million went to Liberal-friendly ad agencies that sometimes did little or no work for the money. There have also been allegations that some of the cash flowed back to the Liberal party in campaign contributions.
Chretien's ire was sparked by a series of media interviews Gomery gave before Christmas, in which he referred to Chuck Guite, the bureaucrat who ran the sponsorship program, as a "charming scamp" and suggested some other witnesses had lied under oath.
He also speculated on the impact the inquiry would have on Martin's minority government and used the words "small town cheap" to describe monogrammed golf balls bought for Chretien with sponsorship money.
Gomery has since raised eyebrows with other off-the-cuff comments in the hearing room. He likened one sponsorship deal to "money laundering" and suggested on another occasion that there had been attempts to "bribe" civil servants.
Chretien claims the remarks show Gomery has prejudged the issues and can no longer be considered impartial.
He also objects to the hiring of Bernard Roy, who served as an aide to Brian Mulroney when he was Conservative prime minister, as chief counsel for the Gomery inquiry.
ping
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
"and used the words "small town cheap" to describe monogrammed golf balls bought for Chretien with sponsorship money."
How dare he! He should be boiled in oil for such a statement!
Presumably, it should have been:
"Chretien's challenge of Gomery"
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
Dude is throwing a lot of dust in the air.
Maybe the judge described a portion of the affair as "money-laundering"...because it was!!
that appears to be exactly what it was.
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