Doling of governmental money

In November 1997, Transelec, a company controlled by Gauthier, gets a $6.3-million contract from the Canadian International Development Agency, a deal later criticized by the federal auditor general(2). This is the same Claude Gauthier, another loyal Chretien's friend, who in 1996, by buying a parcel of land adjacent to Chretien's golf course improved the course's troubled finances.

In October 1997, Mr. Chretien was told that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police was investigating the after effects of his doling of money and as a consequence he launched his own self policing and private investigation against his own governmental practice to dole money away to his friends.

Mr. Chretien asked his own direct subordinate Harold Wilson, Chretien's Ethics Counsellor, to probe the governmental disbursements of the Transitional Jobs Fund (TJF). Mr. Wilson did a superb job by identifying in writing the corruption of the granting of TJF money, and coincidently this occurred four or five days before the RCMP charged Pierre Corbeil, a Liberal organizer in Chretien's riding of St. Maurice, of influence peddling for asking companies seeking governmental grants to pay him money. Mr. Wilson identified a parallel or a private system of vetting TJF grants operated beyond the scope of the bureaucracy(3). Later, in 1998, Pierre Corbeil was convicted of demanding $30,000 in payments for his help in securing job grants; and because Mr. Corbeil pleaded guilty there was never a criminal trial and we cannot know the extent of criminal corruption in the governmental doling of job grants

Personal Observation

I am developing the understanding that the Ethics Counsellor, Howard Wilson, plays the role of a dummy buffer between the RCMP and Jean Chretien. And to say that the RCMP is run by a Commissioner responsible to the Solicitor General of Canada, appointed by Jean Chretien. So, while in the United States we have President Bill Clinton who has been impeached for a peccadillo, we in Canada have Prime Minister Jean Chretien who personally doles governmental money to his friends with criminal records, and he gets away with it. And the RCMP cannot catch him for two reasons, first the RCMP has to contend with Chretien's private line of defense, the Ethics Counsellor; and second the RCMP needs to have clearance by the Solicitor General of Canada(4), Honourable Lawrence MacAulay, directly responsible to the Prime Minister.

Now, you tell me what kind of democracy this is. Jean Chretien is certainly above the RCMP, but could he be above the law? I have made up my opinion, and you can make yours, and if you are not afraid as I am, maybe you can share it with your friends.

References/endnotes

Relevant political and economics articles http://www.ftlcomm.com/ensign

The author can provide specific references of the cited events in the Grand-Mère's affair. He also acknowledges the following news organizations: National Post, Canadian Internet Network, The Ottawa Citizen, The Globe and Mail, Canadian Press. The author read articles written by Robert Fife, Andrew McIntosh, Joël-Denis Bellavance, Peter Shawn Taylor, Andrew Coyne, Gordon Gibson, and Diane Francis of the National Post; Paul Adams and Daniel LeBlanc of The Globe and Mail; Lawrence Martin and Kate Jaimet of The Ottawa Citizen.

1. - Prime Minister Jean Chrétien's involvement with the BDC's $615,000 loan, Part 3. Job Creation in Chretien's riding of St. Maurice, by Mario deSantis, December 8, 2000

2. Chretien cleared of wrongdoing, Canoe, Canada Internet Network, November 21, 2000

3. - Liberal MPs 'vetted' grant applications, documents reveal, Robert Fife and Andrew McIntosh, November 21, 2000, National Post

4. Organization of the RCMP http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/frames/rcmp-grc1.htm