Posted on 06/04/2008 1:37:20 PM PDT by Squawk 8888
OTTAWA — The Conservatives are seeking a court injunction to stop the Liberals from using what they claim is a “doctored” audio tape to discredit Prime Minister Stephen Harper in the Chuck Cadman affair.
While they say the sensational tape was tinkered with, they don’t say that the changes altered what Harper said or meant.
The tape has been at the centre of politically explosive allegations that the Tories offered Cadman a life-insurance policy in exchange for his support on a key vote in Parliament in 2005.
In the recording, Harper tells Tom Zytaruk, the author of a book on Cadman, that an offer was made to the dying Independent MP.
The author, who released the tape to the media, has said repeatedly that it contains his entire conversation with Harper.
Conservative MP James Moore told a news conference Wednesday that two audio specialists analyzed the tape and found it had been altered.
“The forensic evidence is clear. The so-called ‘Zytaruk tape’ is incomplete. The tape has been doctored, including the insertion of a ‘fabricated soundbite’,” Moore said.
However, he did not say specifically how the tape had been changed or offer any proof that the Liberals knew the tape had been tampered with.
He also sidestepped a question about whether Harper’s words or their meaning had been twisted.
All he would say is that the tape doesn’t reflect the entire conversation.
“Certainly if there’s a 10-minute conversation and only two minutes of it is put forward, certainly the meaning of a conversation cannot be taken to be entirely complete,” he said.
The Conservatives want to stop the Liberals from using Harper’s words against him in campaign ads.
Audio experts Alan Gough of Stratford, Ont., and Tom Owen of Colonia, N.J., separately examined copies of the tape and reached similar conclusions.
“The tape has been edited and doctored and does not represent the entire conversation that took place,” Owen said in a sworn statement.
“This is not a continuous recording of one conversation,” Gough said in his affidavit.
“The interruptions of words, changes of background ambience and changes of frequency response indicate that this may be three separate recordings.”
The tape sparked a furor when it was released in March. Dona Cadman, widow of the late MP, said the Tories had offered her dying husband a $1-million insurance policy in return for his vote against the Liberals at a critical juncture. He rejected the offer angrily, she said. He went on to support the Liberals.
Tory officials and Harper denied the $1-million offer.
The key phrase in the recording has Harper saying: “Of the . . . offer to Chuck was that is was only to replace financial considerations he might lose due to an election.”
The prime minister has said repeatedly since then that Cadman was only offered the chance to return to the Conservative party and financial help in his re-election bid.
The Liberals accused Harper of trying to bribe an MP, although the RCMP investigated and said they found no evidence of a crime.
Cadman was a popular B.C. MP who entered the Commons as a Reformer in 1997. He lost the Conservative nomination in the 2004 election and ran and won as an independent.
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Glad to see that things are as messed up on your side of the border as on ours. So how is the Mark Steyn showtrial playing out up there?
I thought he was elected as a Lieberal.
He was elected as a member of the Reform Party but left the caucus sometime after they merged with the Conservatives. His vote propped up the Liberal minority government for a while as a tie-breaker so both parties were actively courting him.
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