Report clears Canada's Martin
OTTAWA -- Prime Minister Paul Martin was cleared yesterday of wrongdoing in a kickbacks scandal that has dominated Canadian politics for more than a year, boosting his chances of staying in power in elections next year.
But in a report, investigators chastised former prime minister Jean Chretien for the 1997-2001 campaign finance scandal that has cost the Liberal Party a firm grip on power.
The head of the investigation, Justice John Gomery, found that Liberal Party officials ''subverted and betrayed" Canadians' trust in government by channeling millions of taxpayer dollars to advertising firms, which then illegally kicked back funds to the party. The money was part of an ad campaign to promote national unity in French-speaking Quebec when the province was threatening to secede.
''The public trust . . . was subverted and betrayed, and Canadians were outraged, not only because public funds were wasted and misappropriated, but also because no one was held responsible for his [Chretien's] misconduct," Gomery wrote in the 686-page document.
Although Martin was finance minister at the time and signed off on continuing the ''Unity Fund," the commission concluded he was not aware of the scam or responsible for how the money was mishandled. He moved quickly to endorse the report and distance himself from the corruption, vowing to make sure it never happens again.
He said the Liberal Party will pay more than $970,000 to cover the kickbacks Gomery said were channeled to the party's Quebec branch. He also banned 10 officials named in the report from party membership, and expanded lawsuits against ad firms involved to recover public funds.
Most significantly, Martin reaffirmed his pledge for elections 30 days after the commission gives its final report in February, to let the public decide if it wants to keep his Liberal Party in office.
The head of the opposition Conservative Party, Stephen Harper, said the report showed the Liberal Party used ''stolen money" to finance its reelection and that it must be held accountable for the corruption the inquiry uncovered.
Even as Martin was embracing the inquiry's conclusions, Chretien said in a news conference that the report contained serious errors and announced he would ask a federal court for a review.
The report concluded that Chretien was politically responsible for the scheme set up by his associates, though there is no proof Chretien was directly aware of it.
