Martin dodges sponsorship scandal questions

CTV.ca News Staff
June 4, 2004 1:00 PM ET

As Paul Martin's minister of public works warns civil lawsuits over misspent sponsorship money will be coming "very soon," the prime minister is working harder than ever to distance himself from the scandal.

In an interview with Canada AM Friday, Martin repeatedly tried to dodge questions about the sponsorship scandal.

"(The public inquiry) is going to basically decide the nature of the charges that will be laid, along with the RCMP, and that's really well in place," Martin said. "What we're really dealing with here, I think, is the reopening of Point Pleasant Park (which was rebuilt after Hurricane Juan hit Halifax). But let me just tell you about this election campaign."

Martin went on to say that the important thing right now is to look at the differences between political parties. "The rest is very important, but fundamentally, we've got to look forward," he said.

Throughout the campaign, Martin has tried to keep the focus away from the $100 million that went to Liberal-friendly ad companies for little or no work. Earlier this week, he told reporters that he "felt very badly that those issues occurred" and that they would never occur again.

But in an interview with The Globe and Mail, his own minister of public works, Stephen Owen, put the issue front and centre once again.

Owen told The Globe that "you clearly have got political involvement at the highest levels," and said the scandal was a "thought-out scheme with some criminal activity, with some political twisting."

Last month, the RCMP filed fraud charges against Chuck Guite, the former bureaucrat who headed up the sponsorship program, and Jean Brault, the president of Groupaction Marketing.

But Owen alleged that much of the blame for the scandal falls on Jean Pelletier, who was Jean Chretien's chief of staff, and Alfonso Gagliano, the former minister of public works. Both denied any wrongdoing in testimony given to the Commons public accounts committee, and Owen was careful not to state that their actions were criminal.

But he did say that the two "were clearly involved in a way that circumvented the proper accountability lines ... and to that extent, there is no doubt it was improper."

The assertion is in sharp contrast to Martin, who has refused to hold individuals in the Chretien government responsible.

Though he would not name names as to who could be facing lawsuits, Owen said Andre Gauthier, the special counsel appointed by the Martin government to recover any misspent funds, would be launching civil action "very soon."

"In civil matters, it's not a good strategy to announce the launch of any procedures, except maybe one hour early," he added.

The latest reminder of the sponsorship scandal comes as the Liberals' popularity among voters continues to sag. On Wednesday, a Leger Marketing poll showed Canadians' trust in the prime minister has dropped 12 percentage points to 27 per cent. And an Ipsos-Reid poll released earlier in the week put the Liberals just four points ahead of the Conservatives.

With so many questions about the sponsorship scandal still unanswered and the trust of voters growing more shaky, Canada AM's Seamus O'Regan asked Martin why he made the decision to go ahead with an election now, rather than wait until a public inquiry into the scandal was complete.

"That inquiry is going to take whatever time it takes," Martin said.

"I knew this was going to be a very tight election -- I've known that right from the beginning. But I've also known that once the party programs are out that Canadians are going to see there's a very, very clear choice."

Martin added that it was necessary to call an election now so that he could move forward with the Liberals' 10-year health-care plan.

"I have to ask for a mandate," he said. "I can't essentially ask Canadians to spend money for a generation without going to the people."