In "The Oliphant in the room", one of my very first posts, I suggested (in what I hoped would be satire) that the report of the Oliphant commission into the dealings between former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and a German businessman and convict, Karlheinz Schreiber, would amount to nothing.
Yesterday, only five months after it was due, Mr. Justice Oliphant's report was finally released. And it amounted to nothing. Here's what we learned.
Mr. Schreiber counted Mr. Mullarkey among his friends, and had unprecedented access to him and his office, even while he was prime minister. Shortly after that Mr. Mulroney took a bunch of cash ($225,000 or $300,000, depending on which crook you believe) from the self-confessed bribemeister, stashed it in safety deposit boxes in the USA and Canada, and still can’t come up with a believable explanation for so doing.
Where did the money come from? Judge Oliphant found it was likely a commission paid by Airbus Industries to Mr. Schreiber for the sale of several Airbuses to Air Canada. But, he says, "there is no evidence" that Lyin' Brian knew that.
Judge Oliphant said that he found Mr. Mulroney's explanation for why he took the money "troubling at best, and, at worst, not worthy of any credence." He characterized the former PM's actions as "inappropriate" -- a conclusion which has been submitted to the Guinness Book of Records in the category "Understatement of the Decade".
Which is the lesser of the two weasels?
But let us not judge the judge. His hands were tied. The commission's terms of reference, as dictated by Mr. Mullarkey's good friend and mentor, "Call Me Steve" Harpoon, precluded Judge Oliphant from asking questions about the Airbus affair.
Worse, he was bound not to assess civil or criminal liability. All he could do was give Mulroney a stern lecture saying how disappointed we all are that he (Mulroney) did not live up to the code of ethical conduct that he (Mulroney) himself (Mulroney) legislated while he (Mulroney) was PM.
Mr. Mullarkey, through a spokesperson, said that he was gratified that Judge Oliphant found there had been no wrongdoing while he (Mulroney) was prime minister. That there was plenty of wrongdoing starting about 48 hours after Mulroney resigned, but while he was still a Member of Parliament, was not explained or apologized for.
The Oliphant Commission cost Canadian taxpayers a sum not unadjacent to $16 million ... including legal fees paid to Mr. Mulroney's lawyers. It's a mystery how the ex-PM qualified for legal aid, since he received over $2 million from the former government as settlement of a libel action over allegations that he (Mulroney) did pretty much what Judge Oliphant has now found he did.
In his statement yesterday, poor Mr. M. did not volunteer to give back the $2 million. When asked in the House of Commons if the government would try to recover the money, Justice Minister Rob Nicholson said the government would study the report.
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