One Mighty Spoon to Stir This Pot
If I hear the words "Karlheinz" and "Schreiber" in the same sentence again, I'm going to scream.
This whole Schreiber affair has put yet another black mark on a democratic government and politics in general. And the thought of what's to come in the weeks and months ahead is enough to make the healthiest person develop ulcers.
If you've been hiding under a rock of late, you may not know the story so far. So here it is! Karlheinz Schreiber is a German-Canadian businessman, who was until recently incarcerated awaiting extradition back to Germany to face fraud and tax evasion charges. He has been long-linked to Brian Mulroney in the whole Airbus affair many, many years ago.
As most people do when they know that the chips are very much against them, bargaining begins. That's exactly what Schreiber started doing in the days and weeks leading up to his extradition date. He began to write letters to the government, telling them that he'd reveal the extent of his involvements with Mulroney and the Airbus scandal in exchange for a stay of his extradition. If he were sent back to Germany, he would no longer co-operate.
Stupidly, the stay was granted, and Schreiber was released from prison pending his meetings with the ethics committee. When he finally appeared in front of the committee, after a very selfish move on his part to not answer questions the first day he was there because he wasn't "adequately prepared," he admitted that the relationship with Mulroney had nothing to do with Airbus but with another project he was working on.
The whole reason the government was interested in Schreiber's testimony was to link Mulroney to Airbus, so that they could re-coup the settlement money paid to Mulroney for accusing him of just such a thing 10 years earlier. Above all, the Liberals and other opposition parties wanted the Canadian public to discover that the Sponsorship affair wasn't the first major scandal in Canadian history.
So, the ethics committee didn't get what they were after. However, the information that Schreiber gave the committee was apparently damning enough that the former Prime Minister himself came to Ottawa to give his side of the story. That didn't stop the opposition from continuing to maintain that the public inquiry that is set to start this spring over the matter continue on course, even though it no longer has anything to do with Airbus.
So what have we learned here? Let's recap:
1. Karlheinz Schreiber is no longer in jail, and is not in Germany answering the most serious charges against him.
2. The Canadian public is going to be put on the hook financially for the entire length of the public inquiry, if it is allowed to happen.
3. Most of the taxpayers' money used for the inquiry will go straight to the pockets of high-power attorneys.
4. All of this fuss is over events that happened in the 1980's and early 1990's and center around a politician who, as an exiting Prime Minister, wasn't high on anyone's Christmas card list, let alone his own political colleagues'.
That brings up the main point of this whole kafuffle: is it really worth it? Do we really want to take the focus away from creating a prosperous Canada by engaging in the partisan bickering and accusations that will surely come with a public inquiry? Do we really want to spend taxpayers' money on a public inquiry, let alone in a year where the Prime Minister and Finance Minister have openly warned that the economy is going to suffer in 2008 due to the weakened U.S. economy? Can we collectively hate Brian Mulroney any more for all of the wrong decisions he made while in office based on this new information? If someone's opinion of Mulroney has changed based on the testimony given to the ethics committee, does it really change the nature of political issues in the present time?
I suspect that the answer to many of these questions is a resounding no.
It's ironic: the opposition parties are saying that a public inquiry is necessary to re-instill the public's faith in the democratic process and in its duly-elected representatives. However, it is in forcing an inquiry amid a portion of the public saying that it is unnecessary and wasteful is what will contribute to the continued lack of trust average Canadians have for their elected representatives and the political process as a whole.
So this is quite a mess we've got ourselves into. And its all because of a man named Karlheinz Schreiber. He stirred the pot just long enough to weasel his neck out of the noose. Thanks for using the Canadian government as your get-out-of-jail-free card.
Don't worry though; you'll be back to Germany in no time. The Canadian public is not falling for your games.
Briggsy
This whole Schreiber affair has put yet another black mark on a democratic government and politics in general. And the thought of what's to come in the weeks and months ahead is enough to make the healthiest person develop ulcers.
If you've been hiding under a rock of late, you may not know the story so far. So here it is! Karlheinz Schreiber is a German-Canadian businessman, who was until recently incarcerated awaiting extradition back to Germany to face fraud and tax evasion charges. He has been long-linked to Brian Mulroney in the whole Airbus affair many, many years ago.
As most people do when they know that the chips are very much against them, bargaining begins. That's exactly what Schreiber started doing in the days and weeks leading up to his extradition date. He began to write letters to the government, telling them that he'd reveal the extent of his involvements with Mulroney and the Airbus scandal in exchange for a stay of his extradition. If he were sent back to Germany, he would no longer co-operate.
Stupidly, the stay was granted, and Schreiber was released from prison pending his meetings with the ethics committee. When he finally appeared in front of the committee, after a very selfish move on his part to not answer questions the first day he was there because he wasn't "adequately prepared," he admitted that the relationship with Mulroney had nothing to do with Airbus but with another project he was working on.
The whole reason the government was interested in Schreiber's testimony was to link Mulroney to Airbus, so that they could re-coup the settlement money paid to Mulroney for accusing him of just such a thing 10 years earlier. Above all, the Liberals and other opposition parties wanted the Canadian public to discover that the Sponsorship affair wasn't the first major scandal in Canadian history.
So, the ethics committee didn't get what they were after. However, the information that Schreiber gave the committee was apparently damning enough that the former Prime Minister himself came to Ottawa to give his side of the story. That didn't stop the opposition from continuing to maintain that the public inquiry that is set to start this spring over the matter continue on course, even though it no longer has anything to do with Airbus.
So what have we learned here? Let's recap:
1. Karlheinz Schreiber is no longer in jail, and is not in Germany answering the most serious charges against him.
2. The Canadian public is going to be put on the hook financially for the entire length of the public inquiry, if it is allowed to happen.
3. Most of the taxpayers' money used for the inquiry will go straight to the pockets of high-power attorneys.
4. All of this fuss is over events that happened in the 1980's and early 1990's and center around a politician who, as an exiting Prime Minister, wasn't high on anyone's Christmas card list, let alone his own political colleagues'.
That brings up the main point of this whole kafuffle: is it really worth it? Do we really want to take the focus away from creating a prosperous Canada by engaging in the partisan bickering and accusations that will surely come with a public inquiry? Do we really want to spend taxpayers' money on a public inquiry, let alone in a year where the Prime Minister and Finance Minister have openly warned that the economy is going to suffer in 2008 due to the weakened U.S. economy? Can we collectively hate Brian Mulroney any more for all of the wrong decisions he made while in office based on this new information? If someone's opinion of Mulroney has changed based on the testimony given to the ethics committee, does it really change the nature of political issues in the present time?
I suspect that the answer to many of these questions is a resounding no.
It's ironic: the opposition parties are saying that a public inquiry is necessary to re-instill the public's faith in the democratic process and in its duly-elected representatives. However, it is in forcing an inquiry amid a portion of the public saying that it is unnecessary and wasteful is what will contribute to the continued lack of trust average Canadians have for their elected representatives and the political process as a whole.
So this is quite a mess we've got ourselves into. And its all because of a man named Karlheinz Schreiber. He stirred the pot just long enough to weasel his neck out of the noose. Thanks for using the Canadian government as your get-out-of-jail-free card.
Don't worry though; you'll be back to Germany in no time. The Canadian public is not falling for your games.
Briggsy