Posted on 05/12/2005 6:20:03 AM PDT by GMMAC
Gomery 'atom bomb':
Rogue group ran Quebec Liberal fundraising - witness
Willian Marsden
CanWest News Service
May 12, 2005
MONTREAL - The federal Liberal party was running a secret parallel fundraising organization in Quebec that reported directly to the former public works minister Alfonso Gagliano, according to a former director-general of the party.
Daniel Dezainde told the Gomery Commission yesterday he discovered the secret organization when he became director-general of the party's Quebec wing in May, 2001. He said the rogue organization never filed financial reports.
He also said at least one of the fundraisers was also involved in lobbying for government contracts on behalf of corporate donors. He said this would have gone off "like an atomic bomb" if it had been made public.
When Mr. Dezainde tried to "cut out the rot from the Liberal tree" by firing the fundraiser, he said the Prime Minister's Office reproached him and the man who headed the rogue fundraising organization, Guiseppe "Joe" Morselli, threatened him.
"He came right up close to me and put his finger right in my nose and said, 'From now on it is war between you and I,' " Mr. Dezainde said. "I felt my own safety was directly threatened."
He said Mr. Morselli also tried to "blackmail" him and told him that a friend of his would lose his government contacts unless the fundraiser was rehired.
Mr. Dezainde is a long-time Liberal political attache and campaign organizer from Gatineau. He currently works for the provincial Liberals as a press attache.
He volunteered to appear before the Gomery Commission and told his astonishing story in a soft, confident voice.
Mr. Dezainde said Mr. Gagliano was fully aware of the fundraising organization and stressed to him when he hired him that he would not be responsible for finances . He said Mr. Gagliano told him: "'You are going to have many other things to keep you busy and we prefer the director-general focus on other duties."
Three days later, the outgoing general director, Benoit Corbeil, introduced him to Mr. Morselli as the man responsible for funding. He said Mr. Corbeil told him: "This is the real boss."
"So then a number of alarm bells went off in my head," Mr. Dezainde said. Mr. Morselli's right-hand man was Beryl Wajsman.
Previous witnesses stated that Mr. Wajsman was hired to raise money in the Jewish community. Mr. Dezainde said Mr. Wajsman made it clear that he reported only to Mr. Morselli. Neither Mr. Morselli nor Mr. Wajsman had any formal contract with the Liberal party.
"They were a parallel organization," Mr. Dezainde said. He said Mr. Wajsman operated out of an office at Liberal headquarters that was always locked.
"He would come in, lock himself in his office and have no contact with anybody."
The Liberals were paying him $5,000 a month as an advance on commissions for the money he raised. The Liberal party was also renting him a car because Mr. Wajsman had claimed that his personal car needed repairs.
"It took an awful long time before his car was repaired because he kept the rental car to the end of June at an extremely high rate of $1,600 a month for short-term rental," Mr. Dezainde said.
He said he finally fired Mr. Wajsman on June 28, 2001, when he discovered documents showing he had secretly lobbied on behalf of companies seeking federal contracts. He said that at the time, the party's finances were a mess.
There were no financial reports and numerous invoices "didn't even exist on the books."
The Liberal party owed more than $3-million to banks, hotels, printers and other contractors and hadn't paid its rent in five months.
But Mr. Dezainde wasn't getting any money from the fundraisers, nor was he getting any financial reports.
When he talked to Mr. Morselli about the bills, he claimed to be in charge of all bills including which should be paid and which should not.
"If I still needed to be any more astonished because this bowled me over completely," Mr. Dezainde said, "I had to submit bills to Morselli so he could determine what should be paid and when these bills should be paid ... I was completely floored."
"He was usurping all of your functions?" Justice John Gomery asked.
"Absolutely," Mr. Dezainde said. "There were too many dark zones, grey zones, very, very grey and now there was an attempt to keep the director-general from knowing where the funding was coming from."
Mr. Dezainde said he felt like he was in the "Twilight Zone."
"I was going from surprise to surprise," he said.
"Well welcome to the club," Judge Gomery commented.
© National Post 2005
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