The headline in the Thursday, 12 February 2004 edition of the National Post screamed "J' ACCUSE." It went on to state "The blaming begins." The same paper's Wednesday headline read, "ANGRY ALL OVER AGAIN" and quoted Auditor-General Sheila Fraser's words. The Vancouver Sun headed its story, "Misspent millions shock Ottawa's auditor" and followed that with an editorial entitled, "The spending scandal shows that Ottawa culture must change."
A British Columbia reader of this space wrote, "Any red-blooded Canadian who watched TV last night, or read the papers today, must be hard pressed to prevent their blood from boiling. Any Liberal MP, if he has red blood, should resign in protest immediately, for the disrespect of their party for the Canadian taxpayer."
From an Ontario reader comes this contained in a letter sent to the National Post sent in response to an article by Michael Bliss entitled "An issue worth going to the polls on" and carried in the 11 February edition of that paper. The letter was not published, unfortunately. "Michael Bliss writes that this is the mother of all Canadian political scandals. I disagree. Our biggest ever scandal came out of a Chateau Laurier Hotel room at 3:00 a.m. over two decades ago in the form of a patchwork Constitution that Canadians did not want, did not ask for, and did not need. And when Trudeau spoke at the Liberal convention that elected John Turner, he claimed that 'the people asked for a people's package.' That, too, was scandalous.
"Elsewhere Bliss talks of a government of honourable men and women going to the polls to see if it can regain the confidence of the people. The sounds to me like the British sense of fair play and that is also dead in this country, thanks again to Mister Trudeau's Constitution and, in particular, its notwithstanding clause."
From a read of the newspaper headlines, editorial and comments from readers - Canadians - the uproar that erupted with a catastrophic effect upon Ottawa, directly, and Canada, indirectly, is a blight on all Canadians. There is, however, one point that seems to stand out above all others, namely that the scandal seems to have been centred in Quebec and primarily for Quebecois. Is that enough to say that such scandals are endemic to Quebec?
According to the Ontario letter-writer, the entire affair, that is, such scandals, began with Pierre Elliot Trudeau, a native son of Quebec and later Canada's 15th prime minister. Let us not forget the solemn words of the BC writer - his words speak from the heart and ought to raise the ire of all Canadians regardless of whether they reside inside or outside Quebec. Until a future date, hopefully never to arrive, Quebec is still a province of Canada and its citizens ought to be just as upset as are Canadians in other parts of the country at what has transpired in Ottawa.
For non-Canadian readers, the above referenced scandal might not register, therefore, a bit of background information.
Over the past few years, and certainly during ex-prime minister Jean Chretien's time in office, some politicians and certain bureaucrats have been short cutting laws that govern how government contracts are awarded. As the country's auditor-general laid bare for all to read, far too often politicians and bureaucrats simply broke the laws and acted on their own. In some instances, those actions resulted in millions of Canadian taxpayers' money being 'lost' or 'misplaced' or simply directed to agencies that did little or no work. One such example is this quote from the National Post of Wednesday, 11 February.
"Ms. Fraser revealed Mr. Gagliano's department used fictitious contracts, artificial invoices and elaborate accounting devices to assign tens of millions of dollars to sponsorship projects in Quebec. The 'deeply disturbing' practices continued virtually unchecked for four years, often using Crown corporations to make payments the government could not make itself, Ms. Fraser reported.
"Liberal-friendly communications firms collected millions of dollars in commissions, at times for simply transferring cheques from one body to another without providing any other service."
The Mr. Gagliano mentioned [a Quebec politician] was at the time federal minister of public works. When troubling issues began to mount, he resigned and was assigned to Denmark as Canada's ambassador to that country by then-prime minister Chretien. Current prime minister Paul Martin has since had Gagliano recalled and fired.
Endemic to Quebec?
Michael Bliss' comment that the most recent scandal "the mother of all scandals" is an issue worth going to the polls is an enticing thought. However, the voting pattern of Canadians over the past few decades is such that the Liberals, heavily supported in Quebec and Ontario, and to a slightly lesser extent in Atlantic Canada, carry a federal election and those on The Prairies and BC end up holding the dirty end of the stick. It is not unusual for the results of a federal general election to be known in the West by the time the polls close in Ontario. So, going to the polls over the Liberal's most recent improprieties means, probably, more of the same. That said, however, the exercise is certainly one that ought to be given serious thought by Prime Minister Martin who, one would assume, is anxious to distance himself from the mess that his predecessor left him. Canadians must consider, though, that Martin was finance minister and a member of the treasury board [the government overseer of all federal government expenditures] in the Chretien government and in all probability would have been aware of the law-breaking goings-on at the time. Of course, today he denies knowing anything about it. That, to this British Columbian, smacks as a "too cute" and "too convenient" response.
What is it that Rudyard Kipling wrote in his poem, "Tomlinson" [1892]?
Go, get ye back to the flesh again for the sake of Man's repute
I'm all o'er-sib to Adam's breed that I should mock your pain,
But look that ye win to worthier sin ere ye come back again
Get hence, the hearse is at your door,
The trim black stallions wait.
They bear your clay to play today. Speed, lest ye come too late!
Go back to Earth with a lip unsealed, go back with an open eye,
And carry my word to the Sons of Men or ever ye come to die: For the sin ye do two by two ye must pay for one by one.
Perhaps, this time around, a sense of outrage against the federal Liberals will surface sufficiently to deny them another round of wallowing at the taxpayers' trough and enough sensible Canadians will look beyond the political rhetoric and see the truth - for many years the federal Liberals have been mired in scandal. It is time to rid Canada of this disease.
Bob Orrick is a private tutor of English grammar, literature, poetry and Canadian history to off-shore youngsters. His pupils hail from such places as Taiwan, China, Japan, Hong Kong, Korea and Venezuela. He was previously in international marketing, was a ministerial assistant to a provincial cabinet minister, spent a few years as a reporter then editor of a community newspaper and enjoyed a career in the Royal Canadian Navy.
Advertising Information 
