John Stewart

April 8, 2008

Even a limited inquiry into the Mulroney-Schreiber dealings should review all the vital records in the case, says Mississauga South Liberal MP Paul Szabo.

An advisor to Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conservative government announced yesterday he would prefer a limited review of the dealings between former PM Brian Mulroney and German-Canadian businessman Karlheinz Schreiber.

That announcement came after a House of Commons ethics committee chaired by Szabo called both Mulroney and Schreiber to public account over their murky arrangement in a series of public sessions last year.

Mulroney admitted to the inquiry that he accepted an envelope stuffed with cash from Schreiber but there was much conflict about what services were to be rendered in return for the money. Yesterday, University of Waterloo President David Johnston rejected a proposal from Szabo's ethics committee for a full-blown public inquiry.

Instead, he said, a timely, cost-effective and efficient limited review should be done, with part of it possibly taking place behind closed doors. That aroused the ire of Opposition MPs including Liberal Leader Stephane Dion, who said any such review should be "much larger in scope." Szabo said he is satisfied with the overall tone of Johnston's report but advised that any inquiry must subpoena Mulroney for his tax records and other critical documents, to get the full information required for the probe.

The ethics committee sought those documents, but they were never provided by the former Prime Minister.