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Liberal government program now under RCMP investigation

Today in our liberal-left corruption investigation news, we feature a new RCMP investigation of Liberal government activities, this one featuring links to Paul (“I bin exonerated!”) Martin.  (Hat tip: The Patriot).

RCMP investigating federalist group

By SYLVAIN LAROCQUE

OTTAWA (CP) – After several months of silence, the RCMP says it is investigating allegations that the federalist side broke Quebec electoral law during the 1995 referendum on sovereignty.

“It’s under investigation,” RCMP spokeswoman Helene Lavergne said Tuesday. Lavergne said the investigation into Option Canada was in a preliminary stage and was unable to provide any more information. In February, briefing notes provided to Heritage Minister Bev Oda advised her that the force did not feel an investigation was warranted.

“The RCMP is of the opinion that there is no reason to open an inquiry on this dossier,” say the notes obtained by The Canadian Press under the federal Access to Information Act.

The notes said that there was not sufficient reason to merit further investigation and that the issue was outside RCMP jurisdiction.

Option Canada was a pro-unity group created by the Council for Canadian Unity to promote federalism ahead of the 1995 referendum on Quebec sovereignty.

The group has long drawn the ire of separatists, who maintain the organization was used to funnel federal government money into the No campaign.

The long-standing suspicion was further fuelled by a book released last fall by journalists Normand Lester and Robin Philpot that alleged that Option Canada spent as much as $3.5 million in support of the federalist side – a violation of Quebec electoral laws.

In May, federal Auditor General Sheila Fraser turned over to the RCMP documents obtained by the authors concerning Option Canada funding.

[…]

Interesting when you go back a bit to a January 2006 story about this:

Prime Minister Paul Martin bristled on Friday at questions about a possible RCMP probe into a federalist group formed just before the 1995 Quebec referendum to promote national unity.

[…] Grants worth $4.8 million were given out in three payments to a group called Option Canada, which has since disbanded.

It was run by Claude Dauphin, who became a senior aide to then finance minister [Paul] Martin.

Because the money was handed over so quickly, there were questions raised. But most were answered after an internal audit of the grants was conducted in 1997.

The department then closed the books on the group.

“The fact is, the books were closed. My understanding is that the accounting was done on a proper basis,” Martin said Friday.

Liberals say allegations about Option Canada are neither new, nor relevant.

“There were questions at the time, which is why I referred it over to the auditor-general and when I never heard anything back from it, I assumed he resolved it,” said Sheila Copps, who was named heritage minister in 1996.

The Heritage Department has asked for further examination by the RCMP with word that Quebec journalist Normand Lester is set to publish what is being billed as an expose on the matter.

Key to liberal media reporting:  “Federalist side” = “Liberal government” —but the liberal media are loathe to say “Liberal” when it’s related to RCMP investigations of alleged Liberal government corruption.  Indeed, notwithstanding the fact that this is all about the past Liberal government, the word “Liberal” does not appear once in the story.

So an audit was done in the 90s by Denis Desautels, Auditor-General, and the he found nothing wrong that we know of.  So Team Martin was “exonerated”.  Then a Conservative government was sworn in, in 2006, and at first, Conservative Heritage Minister Oda was told by the RCMP that no investigation was necessary.  Then when Auditor-General Sheila Fraser looked at it and turned over what she found to the RCMP in May, which included the RCMP’s own documents which were somehow obtained by the authors of a book critical of the Liberals’ Option Canada deal, the RCMP are now investigating.

Interesting.

We need to know what those documents say, and what the time-line and thinking was from the RCMP; and at the same time I’d like to know why the liberal media has been so entirely incurious about all this.

Joel Johannesen
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