Stevie Cameron On Karlheinz Shreiber

Payback: Brian Mulroney Tagged in Canadian Court for Pay-Off None Performance by C. L. Cook Jim Bronskill and Sue Bailey of the Canadian Press report a claim filed by a German arms merchant in an Ontario court was granted by default, and former Prime Minister, Brian Mulroney ordered to remit $300,000, plus interest and court costs. Karlheinz Schreiber says he paid the former PM shortly after he left office in 1993. For their part, Mulroney's legal representatives said they were surprised to hear of the default ruling, but quickly asserted they believe the Ontario court has no jurisdiction - as the alleged payments were made, (or not made) - in hotel rooms located in New York City and Montreal. For those that believed Stephen Harper achieved his primacy as examplar of ministerial scumbaggedness, credit is due to the old maestro, Harper's right honourable predecessor, Lyin' Brian Mulroney. Mulroney was so good, in his day he actually convinced a majority of Canadians to elect him - more than once! But Brian's fall was as long and its impact in the turf of Canadian politics as deep as his meteoric rise had been. Plagued by serial scandals, and popular perception he had lied to the country, entering it into a disastrous trade fiasco without end that would see instead the finishing of the country as we knew it, Brian Mulroney bailed out, leaving the HMCS Tory Titanic to its storied doom. But a Canadian court today accomplished what none who have tried yet, they hooked Lyin' Brian by the pants to squalid payola deals he always denied, and reminded us again of slippery Herr Schreiber, the man with the Deutschmarks. Mulroney has never admitted receiving the $300,000 from Schreiber. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) had thought they had their man, and in 1995 pursued a case against Mulroney, who they believed was paid off while Prime Minister to influence Air Canada's purchase of European Airbus passenger jets. Mulroney denied the allegations and sued the government, forcing an embarrassing back-down and apology, and a cool $2 million dollar cash settlement. In recent years, the former pol whose massive unpopularity devastated the once mighty Conservative party to merely two seats in Canada's more than 300 seat Parliament, (the greatest single-election political wipe out in the country's history), fashions himself an elder statesman, eager to give advice to the resurgent Tories. He was in Ottawa yesterday, comparing the current government to his own, and promoting his forthcoming memoir. Mulroney's lawyer, Kenneth Prehogan dismissed the court, saying; "The first I heard of it was when you notified me of it, and we're going to take immediate steps to have that judgment set aside." Karlheinz Schreiber currently lives in Canada and is fighting extradition to his native Germany for various charges of bribery, fraud, and tax evasion. The relationship between Schreiber and Mulroney is chronicled in Canadian journalist, Stevie Cameron's book, 'The Last Amigo.' Listen to an interview with Cameron from Gorilla Radio, April 2001 here. http://www.atlanticfreepress.com/loudblog//index.php?id=174

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