Adscam- Fraud trial to begin for ex-adman Jacques Paradis

UNSCAM

Seems like the UN should be cleaning up it's own house and not go after Bloggers like Roger L Simon

Rwanda, UN sexcapades in the Congo,the deaths in Darfur that they talk about but do nothing about

Adscam- is today the Day of Reckoning or just the preparation for the Day of Reckoning?

Adscam-excellent insight from Blatchford

"Mr. Corbeil is the latest canary at the hearing.

He said yesterday he never saw Mr. Béliveau's whopper of an envelope in 1997 but he admitted to getting two other, smaller ones that year. These envelopes totalled about $9,000, in packages of $5,000 and $4,000, and he handed them off to two guys who were working in two hotly contested ridings that were ultimately won by Liberal MPs Denis Coderre and Yvon Charbonneau.

But Mr. Corbeil says he did get one of the $50,000 envelopes -- actually, two, one with $35,000 and another with $15,000 -- for a whole other election, this in 2000, and from a whole different fellow, poor old Mr. Brault, who was paying through the nose every which way in those days. Was this the same $50,000 or $60,000 Mr. Brault testified he handed over, and are the lads just a little off in their dates? Or could it be that Mr. Brault was paying so often he forgot about this one?"

ADSCAM - if this took place in the USA , it would probably fall under racketeering sections but of course these are mere allegations

Liberals paid sponsorship cash, inquiry hears

CTV.ca News Staff

Testifying before the sponsorship inquiry, a former senior Liberal executive says ministerial aides to current and former Liberals were paid under the table during the 2000 federal election campaign.

In his appearance before Justice John Gomery's inquiry in Montreal Monday, Benoit Corbeil claimed that the workers received an alleged total of $50,000 from advertising executive Jean Brault to help cover the employee payroll. Corbeil also claimed that Brault offered him $100,000.

The other $50,000 sum, corroborated by inquiry documents and witness testimony, was made through Commando Communication, owned by Brault associate Bernard Thiboutot.

According to Corbeil's allegations, the cash was paid at the start of the 2000 campaign to staffers, including: Irene Marcheterre, later named head of communications for federal Transport Minister Jean Lapierre.

While he was still on the stand, Corbeil was served with a lawyer's paper demanding he retract his allegation about Marcheterre and two other Liberal workers or that they would sue, CTV's Jed Kahane reported.

Corbeil says that's not the only pressure he's faced.

He claimed that former public works minister Alfonso Gagliano called him a few weeks ago to say his reputation could be destroyed ahead of the potentially damaging testimony.

"He said 'listen, Benoit, people will come out against you, unanimously,'" said Corbeil.

"(He said)'you'll lose your reputation and you'll lose friends.'"

Guy Bertrand, Corbeil's lawyer, his client claimed to feel intimidated by the phone call, The Canadian Press reported.

"For him (Corbeil), it was intimidation and we mentioned that to the commission as soon as we could," Bertrand said outside the inquiry.

In his testimony, Corbeil also alleged that he received other under the table donations.

He claimed to have once received an envelope stuffed with $5,000 in cash from his former boss, Michel Beliveau, Corbeil's predecessor as head of the Liberals' Quebec wing.

He claims to have been given the money to help his party get a "leg up" in the hotly contested post-referendum election campaign.

The money was passed along to organizers in the Montreal riding of Bourassa -- the seat eventually won by Denis Coderre.

Coderre, who worked for the advertising firm Groupe Polygone before his election in 1997, went on to serve as a Chretien cabinet minister.

In the House of Commons Monday, there were calls for Coderre, now a Liberal backbencher, to resign.

Corbeil also alleged that Beliveau gave him a second envelope of $4,000 for an east-end Montreal riding won by Liberal Yvonne Charbonneau.

Watching proceedings in Montreal, CTV reporter Jed Kahane said Corbeil's testimony corroborates earlier explosive allegations heard at the high-profile probe.

"We now have other people saying they took cash in envelopes ... corroborating testimony that that was the way the system worked: That there was money kicked back by people who had made a great deal of money off the sponsorship program," Kahane said.

The testimony does appear to support allegations by Beliveau and Groupaction executive Brault, both of whom previously told the inquiry about underground Liberal fundraising activities in the 1990s.

But Corbeil denied Brault's claims that he and other top Liberals badgered him repeatedly for money.

Last week, Beliveau told the inquiry he gave Corbeil up to $100,000 earmarked for several ridings the Liberals were desperate to wrest from opposition parties. The money, he said at the time, came from Jacques Corriveau.

A close friend of then-prime minister Jean Chretien, Corriveau reportedly earned $7 million in sponsorship subcontracts.

Last month, Corbeil grabbed headlines when he alleged that the party not only channeled cash kickbacks to "fake" campaign volunteers, but also awarded some with judicial appointments.

On Monday, the allegations that were heard at the inquiry drew renewed criticism from opposition parties in the House of Commons, whose members called on Liberals to resign.

"Liberal MPs benefited from dirty money, and they are part of the prime minister's inner circle. They include parliamentary secretaries, special advisers, and the prime minister's own principal secretary, said Conservative MP Diane Ablonczy.

"The prime minister said anyone who knew about dirty deals and didn't say anything should resign. Don't these confessions make it clear that someone should be fired?" she asked.

But Liberals warned the opposition against drawing conclusions.

"I would caution the member not to go on one more time with unsubstantiated allegations. The reality is there are processes in place to look at these things. We will listen to the evidence, talk to the individuals, and make our decisions in due course," said Treasury Board President Reg Alcock.

With files from The Canadian Press and a report from CTV's Jed Kahane

UPDATE ON ADSCAM via Kate

Corbeil Testimony


Politics Watch is reporting on the Corbeil testimony, and the Paul Martin camp makes another appearance.

The former director of the Quebec wing of the federal Liberal party testified at the Gomery inquiry Monday that he paid nine party staff members and officials $50,000 in cash stuffed in envelopes shortly before the 2000 federal election.

[...]

Also shortly before the election, Corbeil testified that he made two additional trips to Brault's office where he picked up two separate large yellow postal envelopes containing $35,000 and $15,000 in $100 bills.

On both visits, Corbeil said he counted the cash before leaving Brault's office. He later returned back to the Liberal Party headquarters.

"I came to my office and I divided it up," he testified.

Corbeil said he put the cash in nine separate envelopes for various party workers.

At that point in his testimony, Corbeil grabbed a piece of paper with the names of those he handed envelopes to and hesitated.

Justice John Gomery asked Corbeil to provide the names of the recipients.

"Commissioner, you know I lost my job," Corbeil said to Gomery.

"Mr. Corbeil, you're not the only one," Gomery said. "You're one of a group of people who have dealt with the very negative consequences because of having to tell the truth and we are making a request of you."

Corbeil then testified that he gave Daniel Dezainde, who was an official in the office of then prime minister Jean Chretien, two envelopes - one with $3,000 for Dezainde and another with $2,000 for a woman who was a friend of Dezainde.

He also said he gave Richard Mimeau, a known supporter of Paul Martin, an envelope containing $6,000 to reimburse him for travel expenses.


Corbeil is naming names. Among them is Liberal MP Denis Coderre - and it's not the first time.

Brault said that Gagliano crony Joe Morselli told him he could "solve potential problems" and "talk to Denis" - meaning Liberal cabinet minister Denis Coderre, who also served under Martin."


I presume the Prime MInister will be before the press by sundown, to turf Coderre from the party to uphold that "moral authority to govern" he informed us of a few weeks ago.


Posted by Kate at 04:01 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Adscam- are we to believe a couple of flunkies in the basement laundromat at PWGS were the only ones involved?

Canadian taxpayers' money was laundered to keep the Liberals in power in perpetuity.That's the story. The rest is window dressing.Canadians only need to keep these in mind

Dictionary.com

laun·der Audio pronunciation of "laundering" ( P ) Pronunciation Key (lôndr, län-)
v. laun·dered, laun·der·ing, laun·ders
v. tr.

1.
1. To wash (clothes, for example).
2. To wash, fold, and iron: shirts that were neatly laundered by the hotel staff.
2. To disguise the source or nature of (illegal funds, for example) by channeling through an intermediate agent.
3. To make more acceptable or presentable, sanitize: “The transcripts are, of course, laundered... unidentified larger chunks of conversation are reported missing throughout” (Eliot Fremont-Smith).

http://dictionary.law.com/definition2.asp?selected=1586&bold=%7C%7C%7C%7C


preponderance of the evidence

n. the greater weight of the evidence required in a civil (non-criminal) lawsuit for the trier of fact (jury or judge without a jury) to decide in favor of one side or the other. This preponderance is based on the more convincing evidence and its probable truth or accuracy, and not on the amount of evidence. Thus, one clearly knowledgeable witness may provide a preponderance of evidence over a dozen witnesses with hazy testimony, or a signed agreement with definite terms may outweigh opinions or speculation about what the parties intended. Preponderance of the evidence is required in a civil case and is contrasted with "beyond a reasonable doubt," which is the more severe test of evidence required to convict in a criminal trial. No matter what the definition stated in various legal opinions, the meaning is somewhat subjective.

From the Edmonton Journal.........

But what makes Beliveau's testimony particularly significant is that he is the first Liberal party official to confirm under oath that scads of cash were given to the party, apparently from bogus Adscam contracts. He is the first Liberal to admit the party benefited from sponsorship funds, and very likely broke federal election spending laws.

Knowingly.

Beliveau not only corroborated the testimony of Jean Brault -- an ad exec, not a party insider -- who last month first directly implicated the Liberals, Beliveau also put the lie to the insistence by Martin, Brison and other Liberals that management of the program was limited to a handful of nefarious bureaucrats and that if Liberals were involved, they were acting without the party's consent or awareness.