Payback: Brian Mulroney Tagged in
Canadian Court for Pay-Off Non Performance
by C. L. Cook
Eds. note: Karlheinz Shreiber managed to stave off yet again
extradition from Canada to his native Germany. The former arms trader
and emissary for German industry refused to testify explicitly today
(Nov. 29, '07) on matters of interest to the Parliamentary committee
struck to hear his allegations of deals cut with the former sitting
prime minister, Brian Mulroney before his being let out of jail, and
allowed to gather his pertinent materials.
The state allowed he be held
in house arrest pending the outcome of the growing scandal hearing.
Shreiber, a Canadian citizen, has fought the extradition proceedings
launched by Germany for his alleged involvement with political crimes
committed in that country more than a decade ago. Here's how Pacific Free Press covered
the latest press discovery of the connections between Brian Mulroney
and Karlheinz Shreiber back in July, and a link to a 2001 Gorilla Radio interview I did
with journalist and author, Stevie Cameron, who co-authored the
ground-breaking book on the Shreiber-Mulroney link in, 'The Last
Amigo.'
Payback: Brian Mulroney Tagged in
Canadian Court for Pay-Off Non Performance
by C. L. Cook
[first published at PFP July, 2007.]
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.'
