Readers following the Airbus Commission (surely "Oliphant Commission"? ed.) will be aware that on Sunday Karl-Heinz Schreiber, the man who gave former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney $300,000 in cash (which somehow shrank to $225,000 according to Mulroney) was extradited to Germany to face criminal charges there. Justice Minister Rob Nicholson gave the order with indecent haste, only a couple of days after Mr. Justice Oliphant said he had conluded his deliberations, but much in advance of the judge's report, which might be released later this year.
Here is an astute commentary from Douglas Bell's blog in the Globe and Mail, 3/8/09
As I type this, minds more august than my own are no doubt weighing in on the Schreiber expulsion. That said, can you imagine a key witness in a high-powered U.S. Senate committee inquiry into government corruption being extradited Honduran-style, in the dead of night over a holiday weekend, before the committee had reported its findings?
That Justice Oliphant didn’t have the suck to keep one of his key witnesses in the country lends credence to a curt missive I received early this morning from a player in the inquiry: "One of Canada’s great white-washes."
Walt is prepared to bet a cookie that the "player" mentioned by Mr. Bell is none other than Norman Spector, former fart-catcher for Mr. Malarkey, who was quite adamant in his testimony before Mr. Justice Oliphant that the relationship between Mr. Schreiber and Mr. Baloney didn't pass the smell test.
Check out Mr. Spector's own column, "Spector Vision", in which he reveals some of the things that m'lud didn't allow us to hear. Then read "The Oliphant in the Room", posted here 7/7/09.
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