dimanche, novembre 25, 2007
it's not the liquor I miss
I've been having a hard time caring much about this whole Mulroney - Schreiber business that is erupting. I was like, "so yeah, Mulroney got some cash from a dude to do him a favour, years ago, so what..?" And Devin was always like, "yeah, but Mulroney sued the federal government for daring to investigate him and got a couple million dollars!" And I was like, "yeah, a couple million - it's not that much in the grand scheme of federal government shenanigans, and this Schreiber guy seems a little suspect in his motives, don't you think..?" 'Cause seriously, this whole business of "I have some scandalous information that will rock your country, but I'll only tell you if you don't throw me out" is shaky ground. Let's get this straight - we're going to do YOU a favour and keep you out of German prison so that you can tell us something that may or may not be a big deal, but will likely get everybody's knickers in knots..? Uh-huh.
But this morning I saw something on CTV's Question Period that gave me a little more context to appreciate the validity of the potential issues. Craig Oliver was speaking to the author of a book called "A Secret Trial", Bill Kaplan (a great review is here). This is the same man who wrote "Presumed Guilty", an earlier work that actually showed that Mulroney was not guilty of the things he was accused of in the Airbus Affair (another term that makes me yawn). Kaplan discussed how many journalists have been threatened with lawsuits by Mulroney over the years. He said he personally had received several letters, which is interesting given his position in his earlier book (I was just reading how he wasn't so popular after his earlier book, and accused of being a "Mulroney apologist"), but no journalists have actually been sued. Mulroney saved his legal action for the federal government, which I think, given these new allegations, takes a special kind of arrogance. It turns out that although Kaplan is a very smart man and good researcher, he had no way of knowing about certain other information and documents that contradicted his ultimate findings about Mulroney's "innocence". I guess that's what the "secret" trials were all about.
Kaplan made the point that the inquiry called for by Mulroney and ordered by Harper is a rather pointless exercise. A man like Schreiber, who is desperate to stay in Canada, he says, is not going to sit before an ethics committee for a couple hours and give up all his information, only to be deported. And that makes sense. Schreiber's motives may be completely self-serving, but if he has anything of value to say, he's smart enough to withhold it until he gets some kind of commitment from the powers-that-be that his residency status is secure. Everyone is saying that a special prosecutor should be appointed to handle it quickly and effectively. I tend to agree with that; this thing needs to get wrapped up quickly, not drawn out for years.
By the way, I stole that pic above from Rick Mercer's site - it is the object of this week's "photo challenge". Looks like a good one for that task. | ¶ 1:06 p.m.
I've been having a hard time caring much about this whole Mulroney - Schreiber business that is erupting. I was like, "so yeah, Mulroney got some cash from a dude to do him a favour, years ago, so what..?" And Devin was always like, "yeah, but Mulroney sued the federal government for daring to investigate him and got a couple million dollars!" And I was like, "yeah, a couple million - it's not that much in the grand scheme of federal government shenanigans, and this Schreiber guy seems a little suspect in his motives, don't you think..?" 'Cause seriously, this whole business of "I have some scandalous information that will rock your country, but I'll only tell you if you don't throw me out" is shaky ground. Let's get this straight - we're going to do YOU a favour and keep you out of German prison so that you can tell us something that may or may not be a big deal, but will likely get everybody's knickers in knots..? Uh-huh.
But this morning I saw something on CTV's Question Period that gave me a little more context to appreciate the validity of the potential issues. Craig Oliver was speaking to the author of a book called "A Secret Trial", Bill Kaplan (a great review is here). This is the same man who wrote "Presumed Guilty", an earlier work that actually showed that Mulroney was not guilty of the things he was accused of in the Airbus Affair (another term that makes me yawn). Kaplan discussed how many journalists have been threatened with lawsuits by Mulroney over the years. He said he personally had received several letters, which is interesting given his position in his earlier book (I was just reading how he wasn't so popular after his earlier book, and accused of being a "Mulroney apologist"), but no journalists have actually been sued. Mulroney saved his legal action for the federal government, which I think, given these new allegations, takes a special kind of arrogance. It turns out that although Kaplan is a very smart man and good researcher, he had no way of knowing about certain other information and documents that contradicted his ultimate findings about Mulroney's "innocence". I guess that's what the "secret" trials were all about.
Kaplan made the point that the inquiry called for by Mulroney and ordered by Harper is a rather pointless exercise. A man like Schreiber, who is desperate to stay in Canada, he says, is not going to sit before an ethics committee for a couple hours and give up all his information, only to be deported. And that makes sense. Schreiber's motives may be completely self-serving, but if he has anything of value to say, he's smart enough to withhold it until he gets some kind of commitment from the powers-that-be that his residency status is secure. Everyone is saying that a special prosecutor should be appointed to handle it quickly and effectively. I tend to agree with that; this thing needs to get wrapped up quickly, not drawn out for years.
By the way, I stole that pic above from Rick Mercer's site - it is the object of this week's "photo challenge". Looks like a good one for that task. | ¶ 1:06 p.m.
