Editorial, The Suburban
November 14, 2007

It is to be hoped that the new allegations from Karlheinz Schreiber regarding his dealings with former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney do n ot result in yet another costly commission where screaming headlines and the pressure of by-lines compromise due process. Clearly we need to know if public trust was prejudiced while Mr. Mulroney was in office. But hopefully this government, and the media, will proceed with caution, understanding that the new allegations come from a man desperately seeking to stay Canada, even in the detention centre he is in, rather than face extradition to Germany and trial on charges ranging from fraud to tax evasion. Someone in his position is more than ready to use a scatter-gun approach of accusation to keep himself here.

To review the controversy briefly, it began with allegations that Mulroney and Schreiber co-engineered the 1988 sale of Airbus planes to Air Canada for their personal financial benefit. Charges of wrongdoing first emerged in 1995, when the Liberal government of the time accused the former Prime Minister of misconduct in a letter to Swiss authorities. A broad federal investigation resulted in no charges being laid. Mulroney sued the government for defamation and won a $2.1 million settlement and an official apology. Still, suspicions lingered, in large part because Schreiber would not let them die. Now Schreiber has once again brought this issue front and centre with new claims concerning financial dealings with the former Prime Minister and some of his advisors. Scheriber also claims that he had sent a letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper earlier this year about Mulroney’s allegedly improper activities. The Prime Minister said he never saw it and, deciding to protect the integrity of the office of Prime Minister, announced that the government will be seeking advice from outside independent counsel on what the next steps should be.

Mr. Mulroney himself has had it and broke his silence on the most recent round of accusations. He issued a statement calling for a full public inquiry to investigate the allegations and ensure that the “whole truth [is] finally exposed and tarnished reputations restored.” Most of the media has used words like “bombshell” to describe the latest accusations but of course they are hardly that. They rarely are.

What do we know. We know that in 1996, Mr. Mulroney testified under oath about his relationship with Karlheinz Schreiber and did not mention any payments from him, in cash or otherwise. We know that, in 1993 and in 1994, the former Prime Minister accepted $300,000 from Schreiber, personally and in cash, during three separate encounters at hotels in Montreal and New York. This was shortly after Mulroney left office. We know that Schreiber has rejected the explanation offered by Mulroney spokesman Luc Lavoie, that the money was payment for the former PM's help in promoting a business.

It has been reported by the CBC's Fifth Estate that the $300,000 came from a Swiss account, held by Schreiber, named "Britan," numbered 46341.5; that this account had itself received funds from another account, named "Frankfurt"; that the money in "Frankfurt" came from a Liechtenstein company called International Aircraft Leasing or IAL; and that IAL had received funds from Airbus Industries, as well as a German arms manufacturer, Thyssen Industries. We know that Schreiber was a central figure in the Airbus affair.

Mulroney’s settlement in 1997 was six years before the $300,000 in payments became public knowledge, in 2003. When they did become public, Mulroney said virtually nothing about them, other than to insist through a spokesman that he'd earned the money legitimately and paid all his taxes.

What was supposedly “explosive” this week is that Screiber’s new allegations claim that he met with Mulroney in 1998 and that one of Mulroney’s advisors asked him to make some arrangements regarding money. The advisor denies it and Schreiber is hardly totally credible given his own agenda. But the Globe and Mail report that the fact of the 1998 meeting was independently confirmed by a third person who claims to have attended it, has fuelled the latest round of flusters.

It is one thing to want answers to the $300,000 and the form it was paid in and the source it was paid from. If there is a question, let the RCMP or appropriate revenue authorities investigate. But as much as people, and particularly those in media, might not like it, the 1998 meeting may just be no one’s business. It was five years after Mulroney left office and he was entitled to meet with anyone he liked.

Schreiber certainly has interesting friends. As Don Martin reported in the National Post former Trudeau minister Marc Lalonde and former Mulroney minister Elmer MacKay each rushed forward with $100,000 to help Schreiber make his $1-million bail following Mr. Schreiber's arrest on tax-evasion charges in Germany.

Schreiber has both praised and denigrated Mulroney. It seems as circumstances change his opinion changes. To judge this whole affair based on anything he says would be just dead wrong. Are there questions that need answering? Yes. But let’s not raid the taxpayers’ pocketbook and destroy due process in a witch-hunt again. The government must achieve a proper balance between the peoples’ right to know and protecting the public purse from tales spun out of fantasies of self-preservation.