Nope..not unlike you straight and narrow canadians!
The sponsorship scandal, "AdScam", or Sponsorgate, is an ongoing scandal that came as a result of a Canadian federal government "sponsorship program" in the province of Quebec and involving the Liberal Party of Canada (mostly its Quebec branch), which was in power since 1993 up to January 2006. The program was originally established as an effort to raise awareness of the Government of Canada's contributions to Quebec industries and other activities in order to counter the actions of the Parti Québécois government of the province that worked to promote Quebec separatism.
The program ran from 1996 until 2004, when broad corruption was discovered in its operations and the program was discontinued. Illicit and even illegal activities within the administration of the program were revealed, involving misuse and misdirection of public funds intended for government advertising in Quebec. Such misdirections included sponsorship money awarded to ad firms in return for little or no work, which firms maintained Liberal organizers or fundraisers on their payrolls or donated back part of the money to the Liberal Party. The resulting investigations and scandal affected the Liberal Party of Canada and the then government of Prime Minister Paul Martin. It was an ongoing affair for years, but rose to national prominence in early 2004 after the program was examined by Sheila Fraser, the federal auditor general. Her revelations led to the government establishing the Gomery Commission to conduct a public inquiry and file a report on the matter.
In the national spotlight, the scandal became a significant factor in the lead-up to the 2006 federal election where after more than twelve years in power the Liberal Party of Canada was defeated by the Conservatives who formed a minority government that was sworn in on Monday, February 6, 2006.
It was later proven that a small part of the money, nearly $100,000, was indirectly funneled from Groupaction and Jean Brault to the Parti Québécois in illegal donations. This is ironic because money destined to promote Federalism was donated to a separatist party, and because the separatist movement was using this scandal as an example of federal corruption. As soon as the Parti Québécois received the information they immediately refunded the money.
Involved parties
Jean Chrétien — Prime Minister of Canada [/font] [/font] at the time the Sponsorship Program was established and operated. The Gomery Commission, First Phase Report which assigned blame for the Sponsorship scandal cast most of the indemnity for misspent public funds, fraud on Chrétien and his Prime Minister's Office staff, though it cleared Chrétien himself of direct wrongdoing.
Jean Pelletier — Prime Minister's chief of staff, later head of VIA Rail, who was accused of mishandling sponsorship deals.
Alfonso Gagliano — Minister of Public Works, and thus in charge of the program. Also the political minister for Quebec.
André Ouellet — Member of Prime Minister Chrétien's Cabinet, longtime Liberal politician and later head of Canada Post, who was also accused of violating sponsorship rules.
Chuck Guité — Bureaucrat in charge of the sponsorship program. Arrested for fraud by the RCMP - convicted on five counts on June 6, 2006.
Jean Brault — Head of Groupaction Marketing, one of the companies to which deals were directed. Arrested for fraud by the RCMP, he plead guilty to five counts of fraud and on May 5th, 2006 was sentenced to 30 months in prison.
Jacques Corriveau — Liberal organizer and head of Pluridesign to which millions in sponsorship dollars were directed.
Paul Martin — Former Prime Minister of Canada. He was formerly Minister of Finance, President of the Treasury Board and Senior Minister from Quebec during most of the years the program occurred. When he became Prime Minister in December 2003, he claimed that he put a halt to it. He also set up the Gomery Commission which later cleared him of formal responsibility by Justice Gomery in his November 2005 'First Phase Report' of the Gomery Commission. The Gomery findings claimed that Martin, as finance minister, established a 'fiscal framework' but he did not have oversight as to the dispersal of the funds once they were apportioned to Chrétien's Prime Minister's Office. A report on the issue by the Auditor General's Office of Sheila Fraser came to the same conclusion. Nonetheless, Martin was frequently accused of tying Gomery's hands and using the sponsorship scandal as an excuse to purge the Liberals of members who supported Chrétien. The scandal played a factor in the federal election of 2006 and the fall of the Liberal Government. Shortly thereafter, Martin resigned from the liberal party leadership.
Joe Morselli — Liberal Party fundraiser. Jean Brault testified that the money exchanges were with Morselli.
Rocky,
It truly warms the cockles of my heart to know that not all Uhmuricans are completely ignorant of the things that go on on this continent, ...however, you're slightly innaccurate... it didn't cost the Liberals the election. Despite the scandal, Canadians still re-elected the party to govern. Yes, it was wrong, ...but they did what they did in an attempt to save the country, and to tip advertising in Quebec towards a more federalist agenda.
The reason the liberals were defeated, was because of a scandal that wasn't. The Conservatives launched smear campaign, after smear campaign against high profile Liberal Party candidate, and Stephen Harper ran a very tight ship during the election capaign, while Paul Martin rehashed the same stale day old product from the last election.
One naughty misdeed in 13 years, doesn't add up to the mountain of feces dished out by the neocons.
The Sponsorship debacle in no way compares to the shear volume of scandals that have plagued the Republicans since they took office. But nice try.
