Judge lifts publication ban on some of key testimony... (AdScam bombshell #2 in Canada)

MONTREAL (CP) - Top federal Liberal officials forced an ad executive to secretly divert more than $1 million to the party's Quebec wing in exchange for sponsorship contracts, the executive told the Gomery inquiry.

Jean Brault's politically explosive testimony, which had been kept under wraps by a publication ban, was finally lifted Thursday, with his allegations of longstanding corruption possibly giving the opposition ammunition to move to bring down the government.

The advertising executive's testimony alleges some top Liberal party executives conspired to inflate sponsorship contracts and skim money off the top to be sent covertly to the Liberal party's Quebec wing.

Brault's Groupaction firm also defrayed party staffing costs through Liberal employees who were planted in his firm at the urging of party brass.

The scheme went on for nine years and involved at least $1.1 million involving top officials in the office of former public works minister Alfonso Gagliano.

If true, the scam would be unprecedented in modern federal politics because tax dollars were funnelled from public coffers to the Liberal party while middlemen took huge commissions for little or no work.

Brault's six days of devastating testimony were rife with accusations of hushed-up payments to the Liberals in Italian restaurants, money being given to a brother of ex-prime minister Jean Chretien, and reluctant contributions strong-armed out of intimidated employees.

Prime Minister Paul Martin has tried to soften the heavy blow this represents to his unstable minority government by blaming any misdeeds on a scant few rogue Liberals who worked under his predecessor, Jean Chretien.

Opposition Leader Stephen Harper and Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe have been furiously weighing the gravity of the accusations to determine if they merit the defeat of Martin's government.

The newly revealed testimony from Brault will give opposition leaders no shortage of new ammunition.

During his time on the stand, Brault calmly and methodically explained how top party brass browbeat him into writing cheques, handing over cash in unmarked envelopes and paying salaries and expenses of Liberal campaign workers from 1993 to 2002.

The head of now-defunct Groupaction also testified that the Liberals were not the only beneficiaries of a shower of shady dollars. The Parti Quebecois was also a recipient of between $100,000 and $150,000 in cash at the request of a PQ official.

But Brault said the federal Liberals were by far the most ruthlessly methodical at amassing tainted money. He said party officials repaid him by using their political contacts to ensure he grew rich from federal contracts in the 1990s.

The now-defunct sponsorship and advertising program was created by Chretien to increase the federal profile in Quebec following the No side's razor-thin referendum win in 1995.

Justice John Gomery is probing all aspects of the $250-million sponsorship program, which funnelled $100 million to Liberal-friendly middlemen who often did little or no work - improprieties that auditor general Sheila Fraser shed light on in a report in early 2004.

The scandal then fell into the lap of Martin, who two months into his job declared himself "mad as hell" and later launched the inquiry.

Martin, Chretien and Gagliano all denied in the Ottawa phase of the Gomery inquiry that they knew about any wrongdoing or controlled where the sponsorship money went.

Brault said payments were sometimes made to Joseph Morselli, who was close to Gagliano.

The dramatic revelations also include a $50,000 scheme involving Morselli, as well as a fraudulent campaign donation in collusion with Jean Chretien's brother Gaby.

Brault last week portrayed Groupaction as a virtual financial arm of the Liberal party's Quebec wing - a wing that was $3.8-million in debt by late 2003.

"I heard that the party didn't have money and they needed money and you have to pay," said Brault, who referred to then Quebec wing president Benoit Corbeil as his "contact on financial matters."

He said it was clear that hiring loyal Liberals was the "magic formula" to being awarded sponsorship contracts.

The largest of the sums transferred to the Liberals, according to Brault, was more than $700,000 in political contributions discreetly funnelled through third parties including Chretien confidant Jacques Corriveau.

Additionally, Brault said secret cash payments totalled at least $147,000 and Groupaction paid another $256,500 to defray Liberal staffing and other costs.

Groupaction or its subsidiaries also donated $166,000 in above-board political contributions from 1996 to 2002.

"We were very heavily solicited," Brault recalled last Friday under questioning from lead inquiry counsel Bernard Roy.

"We didn't ask questions and we understood that all contributions were going to be taken into consideration and that we would be compensated (for it) one way or another."

The Liberal party insists it has no record of any cash being secretly funnelled to the party, but it has also called in the RCMP to determine whether Liberals were victims of fraud involving any former officials.

Although some of Brault's allegations are supported by documentary evidence, the alleged conspiracy rests largely on his testimony, which the party suggests is not credible.

Brault provided several examples of a wide-ranging conspiracy to funnel cash to what Liberal brass called "the cause" which he understood was that of the Liberal party.

"I was told the party counted a lot on me and my financial aid," Brault recalled.

Brault claimed specific requests for money were usually made by one of three men:

- Corriveau, whose Pluri Design graphic firm received $494,000 from Groupaction.

-And Alain Renaud, a Liberal fundraiser who worked at Groupaction for several years, earning more than $1.1 million.

Another part of the alleged scam involved Gaby Chretien, a longtime Liberal organizer who Brault said asked for and received a $4,000 donation in 1998.

Brault said the two men conspired to hide the money's true purpose by recording it as a payment to the elderly Chretien for "professional honorariums."

"I said (to Gaby) 'I don't want details, send me a bill, and we paid the $4,000,' " Brault said.

Corriveau is the one who pressed Brault to make the contribution earmarked for the Montreal-area riding of candidate Yolande Thibeault, Brault added.

Brault said Corriveau also pressed him to funnel whopping sums to Pluri Design from 1996 to 2002 under the guise of professional services that were never performed.

Asked by Roy this week where the money went, Brault replied: "My understanding was that these amounts were destined to the Liberal Party of Canada."

Groupaction's alleged financial improprieties led to criminal charges against Brault and Chuck Guite, the bureaucrat who ran the program in the 1990s.

A Superior Court justice ruled Wednesday that jury selection in their joint fraud trial should be delayed until June 6 from the original date of May 2.

Throughout his testimony, Brault portrayed himself as an unwitting Liberal donor who only forked over the cash to keep federal contracts that netted his firm $60 million, including $17 million in commissions and other fees.

He soon found himself facing a barrage of requests to pay party bills, telephone bills and web design costs - requests he said he usually refused.

He described one contribution at a Montreal restaurant in September 2001, at Morselli's request, that resembled a scene from a thriller film.

Also present at the meeting was a nebulous figure identified only as Mr. Wiseman, Brault said.

"I brought an envelope with $5,000, we made small talk, and I said I would go to the bathroom," said Brault.

"I went to the bathroom, when I came back . . . the envelope was no longer there."

Brault said he made three or four additional $5,000 payments shortly thereafter to Wiseman.

- Corriveau pressed Brault to hire Liberal worker John Welch, who was paid $97,000 even though Brault said Welch manned the phones for the Liberals and did no work for Groupaction.

-Top Quebec Liberals also pushed Brault to pay $84,000 to Liberal staffer Serge Gosselin, who Brault said never worked at Groupaction. Commission lawyers say Gosselin was working on a book on Gagliano while on Brault's payroll.

-Brault said he circumvented Quebec election rules in 1996 to funnel at least $100,000 to the Parti Quebecois when Lucien Bouchard was premier.

Brault also said his firm donated $50,000 to Jean Charest's provincial Liberals in 1998 just prior to the election campaign. Brault said a scheme was hatched to funnel the money to the Quebec Liberals through Groupe Everest, an ad firm close to Charest.

No wonder they had a gag order on this grand theft:

"MONTREAL (CP) - Top federal Liberal officials forced an ad executive to secretly divert more than $1 million to the party's Quebec wing in exchange for sponsorship contracts, the executive told the Gomery inquiry.

"Jean Brault's politically explosive testimony, which had been kept under wraps by a publication ban, was finally lifted Thursday, with his allegations of longstanding corruption possibly giving the opposition ammunition to move to bring down the government.

"The advertising executive's testimony alleges some top Liberal party executives conspired to inflate sponsorship contracts and skim money off the top to be sent covertly to the Liberal party's Quebec wing.

"Brault's Groupaction firm also defrayed party staffing costs through Liberal employees who were planted in his firm at the urging of party brass.

"The scheme went on for nine years and involved at least $1.1 million involving top officials in the office of former public works minister Alfonso Gagliano."

This is an absolutely amazing victory for the little guy via the internet.

I read the censored Canadian thread yesterday, and there was no way to tell how bad and big this grand theft was.

Now the world knows.

Now, if Canadians are smart, the Liberals will start to tank in the polls, an election will be forced by the opposition, and they will be sent to the opposition benches...or worse yet...to political oblivion a la Kim Campbell 1993...

This is an absolutely amazing victory for the little guy via the internet.

With absolutely no thanks whatsoever to the media in this country, which has done nothing to report on this story, and which, most damning of all, has stood silently by or even cheered while the Canadian government went to extraordinary lengths to try and shut down the bloggers. We need to remember that the next time they start nattering on about how they cherish the First Amendment.

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