Former prime minister Jean Chretien launched a spirited attack on Justice John Gomery's sponsorship report, saying he will challenge what he sees as its flawed findings in court.

".. I have accepted the recommendation of my lawyers to take an action in Federal Court to review the commission report," the former prime minister told a news conference in Ottawa on Tuesday afternoon.

Chretien's lawyer, David Scott, said the grounds -- "with the utmost respect to (Gomery's) judicial office" --  are two-fold:

• That Gomery showed a "reasonable apprehension of bias," towards Chretien, and
• His findings didn't have an evidentiary foundation in several key areas, Scott said, without going into detail.

Chretien accepted responsibility for what went wrong on his watch, but also defended his actions.

"As soon as I got word of abuse, I asked the Auditor General and the RCMP to investigate," he said.

That happened in March 2002. Chretien said when he left office in December 2003, "the criminal process led to charges being laid and the implementation of administrative measures following my instructions to rectify what had to be rectified."

Chretien said Gomery's finding that the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) administered the sponsorship program -- something he said was wrong.

"Mr. Gomery ... made an error about the role, responsibility and power of the prime minister," he said.

Chretien also criticized the commissioner for accepting the testimony of federal bureaucrat Chuck Guite over that of Jean Pelletier, Chretien's chief of staff.

In addition, Chretien said some witnesses who could have said good things about him -- such as former public works ministers Don Boudria and Ralph Goodale -- were never called.

The appointment of Bernard Roy -- a former chief of staff to former Progressive Conservative prime minister Brian Mulroney -- as the commission's chief counsel was given as a possible reason for the omissions.

"It was probably not the best decision made" by Gomery, said Chretien about Roy's role, noting that Gomery's daughter also works in the same firm as Roy -- Ogilvy Renault in Montreal.

Chretien called Gomery's choice of Roy as "the beginning" of the war for him.

Asked if he was still proud to be a Liberal, Chretien said yes.

As to the lifetime bannings of 10 people from the Liberal Party, Chretien was scathing: "I never thought I had that power. If I had had it, well, I may have used it on many occasions," he said.

"In particular, regarding Mr. (Jean) Lapierre when he founded -- or helped found -- the Bloc Quebecois. I would have banished him for life. I'm not sure he's going to remain a federalist if things go badly here.''

Jean Lapierre is Prime Minister Paul Martin's Quebec lieutenant. Lapierre quit the Liberal Party on June 23, 1990 -- the day the Meech Lake Accord died and Chretien became Liberal leader. He went on to help launch the Bloc Quebecois, and returned to the Liberals in the months after Chretien left office.

When a Quebec reporter asked Chretien if he thought Martin was as "white as the driven snow," Chretien said, "He had the same responsibility as everyone else.

"It was a program approved by cabinet. He was a member of Treasury Board," he said.

"... They (Treasury Board, responsible for government operations) assured me there were no problems; they must have assured him the same thing," Chretien said.

"Should he have asked more questions? Well, of course. If I'd have been told there were problems, I would have asked more questions."

The findings

Gomery says Chretien and his closest advisers must shoulder most of the responsibility for the sponsorship spending fiasco that Gomery describes as "a story of greed, venality and misconduct".

However, Gomery noted there is no evidence linking Chretien to an organized kickback scheme that saw millions funnelled to the Liberal Party from ad agencies in exchange for lucrative sponsorship contracts or even that he directly knew about the practice.

But another Chretien lawyer, Peter Doody, maintained the investigation was nevertheless biased.

In an interview with CTV News, Doody said he was "very disappointed" that Gomery arrived at his conclusions "with absolute and total disregard for the evidence."

"He concluded that the program was run out of the Prime Minister's Office when all of the evidence -- oral and documentary -- was completely to the contrary."

Gomery quoted his client and others out of context, and misconstrued the evidence of the clerk of the privy council, Doody said.

On the subject of Chuck Guite, for example, Doody said suggestions the ex-bureaucrat was left to run the program unsupervised are wrong.

"The evidence is clearly that Chretien personally, after taking office, said the rules about competitive contracts for political advertising have to be changed to make them competitive," Doody explained.

"He personally told the president of the Treasury board and every cabinet minister to do so."

The former prime minister has had a rocky relationship with Gomery even before his testimony or Tuesday's release of the report.

Chretien's lawyers asked Gomery to step aside in February, claiming that some public statements made by the commissioner showed he had made up his mind on some issues.

Gomery refused to step aside. Chretien then launched a Federal Court action to have Gomery removed, but later withdrew it.