Free Republic

TORONTO and OTTAWA — The Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce has turned over an e-mail received from Liberal MP Scott Brison to police and regulators as part of a probe into the income-trust controversy that dogged the Liberals in the recent election campaign, The Globe and Mail has learned. Sources said the former public works minister, a potential contender for the Liberal leadership, sent an e-mail to one of CIBC's employees the day before Ottawa announced its much-anticipated policy on income trusts last November, in which he suggested the recipient would likely be pleased by the decision. The bank did...

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Paul Martin signaled Wednesday that he is through with answering reporters' questions about the RCMP criminal investigation of his government's income trust announcement. The timing of the investigation has landed smack dab in the middle of a close federal election campaign that now features the Conservatives pushing ahead of the governing Liberals in most daily tracking polls. And the controversy has also derailed the PM's message. Reporters seem almost apologetic at each campaign stop after Martin makes a lengthy campaign announcement only to have the first questions be "off topic" and about the latest Liberal scandal....