Golly, I just can’t remember.
Ad man won’t say if he reimbursed staffers who donated to Liberals in 1997
BRIAN DALY (Canadian Press Online via Yahoo News)
March 8 2005MONTREAL (CP) – An ad executive and one-time Liberal party supporter refused Tuesday to answer allegations he reimbursed former employees for making donations to the party in 1997.
Jean Lafleur was pinned down on the stand by Justice John Gomery, who’s trying to determine whether the disgraced sponsorship program was used to funnel money into the federal party’s cash-strapped Quebec wing.
Lafleur frustrated the judge by repeatedly stating, “I don’t remember” when asked whether he ever pressed employees at his former advertising firm to contribute to the Liberals.
A number of Lafleur’s former staffers made the claims last year in media interviews and documents show eight employees donated $1,000 each to candidate Yolande Thibeault in 1997.
The judge asked Lafleur: “Does asking another person to make a donation to a political party and then reimbursing them for that donation, is it possible that you could do such a thing?”
Lafleur replied: “Mr. Commissioner, I do not remember having done this.”
Gomery rephrased the question, asking, “Is it against your personal code of ethics to do such a thing?”
When Lafleur gave the same reply, the judge turned to commission lawyer Guy Cournoyer and said: “Logically, he cannot rule it out so I will assume that he isn’t ruling it out.”
Gomery heard last fall that another ad agency, Media IDA Vision, donated $5,000 to the Quebec wing of the Liberals out of the same account in which it kept sponsorship money.
The RCMP was called in but found insufficient evidence for criminal prosecution.
Gomery is exploring all aspects of the $250-million sponsorship program, created to raise the federal government’s profile following its narrow victory in the 1995 Quebec sovereignty referendum.
Canadians were outraged following revelations that Liberal-friendly middlemen and ad firms, including Lafleur’s, reaped $100 million in commissions, often for providing little work.
The inquiry has heard Lafleur’s son Eric, who earned nearly $1.2 million in sponsorship-related income in the 1990s, worked for the Liberals during the 1997 election campaign and contributed $1,000 to the party that year.
Documents also show Jean Lafleur personally donated more than $5,500 to the Liberals in three sums in 2001. His ad firms donated another $42,000 to the party between 1994 and 2000.
Lafleur earned $9 million in salaries while handling $30 million in sponsorship contracts in the 1990s. But he denies he ever discussed sponsorships with anyone other than Chuck Guite, the bureaucrat who ran the program.
PTBC was founded by Mr. Johannesen in 2000.
Contact Mr. Johannesen about this article using this form. Please refer to article's title.
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