Stunning testimony expected at Mulroney-Schreiber committee

Stunning testimony expected at Mulroney-Schreiber committee

Meagan Fitzpatrick , Canwest News Service

Published: Tuesday, February 05, 2008

OTTAWA - The House of Commons ethics committee probing the Mulroney-Schreiber affair, which last sat before Christmas, is set to resume this afternoon and MPs could hear some potentially stunning testimony.

Norman Spector, who served as former Conservative prime minister Brian Mulroney's chief of staff in the early 1990s, is scheduled to testify at 3:30 ET and he has already dropped hints about what he plans to tell the committee.

In a recently published column in Le Devoir newspaper, Spector wrote that he would bring documents to the meeting and that he expects to be able to help the committee "identify the source of large quantities of cash brought to 24 Sussex Drive when Mr. Mulroney was prime minister of Canada."

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The committee is looking into the business relationship between Mulroney and German-Canadian lobbyist Karlheinz Schreiber. Mulroney says he was paid $225,000 in cash - Schreiber says it was $300,000 - to do work for Schreiber after he left office.

But Schreiber, who is now suing Mulroney to get his money back because he says the work was never done, has alleged that they made the business deal while Mulroney was still in office. Questions have also been raised about the source of the cash payments, and why they were made in cash in the first place.

In the column, Spector also hinted that he might try to drop a few other bombshells. He offered to testify about "the comportment and motivations of Canada's 18th prime minister by referring to other controversial, but largely unreported, files with which I'm familiar."

But one of Mulroney's lawyers, Guy Pratte, is arguing that the committee has been violating principles of "fundamental fairness" in its treatment of Mulroney. In a letter to chairman Paul Szabo, Pratte singled out today's planned appearance by Spector as a prime example of what he says is the committee's abuse of process.

Pratte earlier requested that Mulroney be given a witness list and schedule; an assurance that the committee's questions and requests for documentation be limited to relevant issues and provided in advance; and confirmation that Mulroney or his lawyer have the right to object to irrelevant or abusive questions or comments "in the event that Mr. Mulroney should appear again before the committee."

There is an invitation for Mulroney to appear again before the committee on Feb. 28, but Szabo has said the committee would probably not issue a subpoena if the former prime minister chooses not to testify.

Schreiber, who is fighting extradition to Germany where he is wanted on fraud and other criminal charges, is also scheduled to appear again before the committee at the end of February.

The current prime minister, Stephen Harper, has called a public inquiry to determine if there was any wrongdoing in Mulroney's dealings with Schreiber while he was still in office. It will not get underway, however, until the committee has finished its work.

Also on the hot seat at the Commons committee this afternoon is Allan Rock, the former Liberal justice minister who announced the $2.1 million out of court settlement with Mulroney after he sued the federal government for defamation.

With files from Canwest News Service