In the issue of The Press of October 15 appeared a column by Denis Lessard entitled: “25 years ago – Mulroney receives an apology from Chrétien: a very short-lived victory”1.
Posted at 12:00 p.m.
Mr. Mulroney never received an apology from Jean Chrétien in the Airbus affair. In fact, Mr. Mulroney never demanded an apology from Mr. Chrétien, and it is unlikely he would have accepted them had they been offered.
It might therefore be useful to establish a chronology of this complex affair which might prove useful to readers who have read Mr. Lessard’s original text.
However, before going into more important matters, I note in passing that Mr. Lessard stated that William Kaplan was Mr. Mulroney’s lawyer. Although Mr. Kaplan is a lawyer, he was never Mr. Mulroney’s lawyer.
In September 1995, the Government of Canada and the RCMP sent a letter requesting assistance to the Swiss government, the equivalent of an affidavit in support of a search warrant. In that application, they claimed that Mr. Mulroney was involved in an ongoing conspiracy to defraud the Government of Canada out of millions of dollars.
In November 1995, after this supposedly “confidential” letter of request was leaked to the media, Mr. Mulroney sued for defamation in the Superior Court of Quebec in Montreal.
As early as June 1996, the Swiss government informed the Canadian government and the RCMP that there was no evidence to support the charges against Mr. Mulroney.
In January 1997, the Government of Canada and the RCMP, not wanting to be exposed in open court to the events leading to the charges, reached a settlement agreement with Mr. Mulroney in which they apologized to him, his wife and her children. The apology reads in part as follows: “Any findings of wrongdoing on the part of the former Prime Minister were — and are — unwarranted. »
In April 2003, RCMP Commissioner Zaccardelli, fully informed of Mr. Mulroney’s business arrangement with Mr. Karlheinz Schreiber, wrote to Mr. Mulroney, announcing the closure of the investigation into the allegations of objectionable in relation to MBB Helicopters, Thyssen and Airbus, because they could not be substantiated.
In November 2007, Mr. Schreiber, desperately trying to prevent his extradition to Germany for tax evasion, signed an affidavit that became the proximate cause of what would become the Oliphant Commission of Inquiry.
In this affidavit, Mr. Schreiber made four main allegations, two of which, if true, would have been violations of the Parliament of Canada Act and Conflict of Interest and Post-Employment Code for Public Office Holders of 1985 which was in force at that time.
Mr. Schreiber alleged that on June 23, 1993, two days before Mr. Mulroney left his post as Prime Minister of Canada, they struck up a business relationship.
However, Commissioner Oliphant said: “Mr. Mulroney did not make any deal with Mr. Schreiber while he was Prime Minister in office. »
Mr. Schreiber also alleged that this agreement obliged Mr. Mulroney to support his efforts to obtain authorization to establish a production plant for light armored vehicles by Bear Head Industries Limited in Nova Scotia or Quebec by lobbying Canadian government authorities.
Commissioner Oliphant said, “I reject Mr. Schreiber’s evidence that Mr. Mulroney’s mandate was national in nature. I accept Mr. Mulroney’s testimony that the mandate was international in scope. »
These lies did not surprise the commissioner. As he concluded: [Schreiber] admitted that he would have done “anything” in his quest for a public inquiry. »
In his report, Commissioner Oliphant also came to two other noteworthy conclusions.
The Commissioner concluded: “There is no evidence that while he [Mulroney] held public office — that is, Prime Minister — he received a benefit from Mr. Schreiber that could have influenced his judgment and the performance of his official duties. »
Regarding Airbus, Commissioner Oliphant concluded: “The only way to link Mr. Mulroney to the Airbus affair is to speculate or endorse the concept of guilt by association. Based on my sense of fairness and my experience as a trial judge for twenty-five years, I am not prepared to indulge in either. »
Mr. Lessard also referred to Allan Rock’s testimony before the Ethics Committee in 2008, in which the former justice minister said that if the Government of Canada had been aware of the business arrangement between Mr. Mulroney and Mr. Schreiber, he might not have apologized and thus settled the issue of the libel suit.
This is an incomplete and therefore inaccurate report of Mr. Rock’s testimony.
First, Mr. Rock admitted that the RCMP was wrong in concluding that Mr. Mulroney engaged in criminal activity and it was this outrageous conclusion that formed the basis of the 1997 settlement agreement.
“The advice I received from the Ministry [de la Justice], said Mr. Rock, which I agreed with, was that the essence of why we apologized to Mr. Mulroney was the language used in the letter of demand, and if you read this language, you will see that it was conclusive. We are used to the language that says it is alleged that such and such happened, but this language, while it sometimes says that, goes much further than that. He actually says there was criminal activity. This is why an apology was presented. »
Second, it is important to note that Mr. Rock was specifically asked at this time if he had any evidence to offer of wrongdoing by a public official regarding Mr. Mulroney’s business arrangement with Schreiber. or the purchase of Airbus planes by Air Canada, and his answer was: “NO. »
After more than 20 years of investigations into the Airbus affair, which included an Air Canada investigation, a Transport Canada investigation, a House of Commons Transport Committee investigation, four RCMP investigations, a House of Commons Ethics Committee and a public inquiry, no wrongdoing on the part of Mr. Mulroney was ever found.
The Airbus case was, as concluded by Philip Mathias of Financial Post, “the mouse that roared. »
Mr. Mulroney is a close friend whom I supported throughout the period of what everyone called “the Airbus affair”. I wanted to post this update.