The Scuttling of the Good Ship Grit

Prime Minister Dithers has asked for time on the various media tonight to plead his case. It appears things have reached the point with the Liberals where a Nixonian "Chequers" speech is required to save their collapsing government.

I have a better idea. Why doesn't Mr. Dithers show up for question period in the House of Commons and make his case there? He's the guy, after all, who promised to restore the parliamentary democratic deficit and in doing so empower parliamentarians in carrying out their traditional role of holding the government of the day to account.

Meanwhile back at the sponsorship swamp we see from a Toronto Star article today that the Liberal kleptocracy is even more egregious than imagined.

Benoît Corbeil, who served as executive director of the Liberal Party of Canada's Quebec wing in the late 1990s, told Radio-Canada that of the 20 or so lawyers who volunteered for the party during the 2000 federal election, some "seven or eight" were appointed to the judicial bench.

"Anyone who wanted to be a judge or win mandates needed to have friendly relations with those people," he told the network.
Corbeil also said he received his marching orders from "a senior Liberal" who was neither an MP nor a cabinet minister, and whose identity he plans to reveal when he testifies at the Gomery inquiry in the coming weeks.

Corbeil, identified by former Groupaction president Jean Brault as a Liberal insider who sought $400,000 to cover party bills during the 2000 election, insists he didn't keep a set of secret books for the party, even if he admitted during the interview to accepting a cash-stuffed envelope from Brault on one occasion.

Asked whether his political masters, who included former public works minister Alfonso Gagliano, knew about the illicit donation, Corbeil said "everyone knew what was happening."

Gagliano denied all Corbeil's allegations in a separate interview with Radio-Canada.

You may take comfort from Gagliano's denials. I must admit to a degree of scepticism.

Not content with corrupting the electoral system by which we the people choose our government; with engaging in the theft of millions of hard earned taxpayers dollars; with perverting the system by which the federal government acquires goods and services, with running a criminal patronage enterprise under the guise of ?saving the country? we now see that the Liberal Party for its own partisan political advantage was undermining the integrity of the nation?s system of justice by selling judgeships to the highest bidders.

The rotting stench grows more foul by the day. The question remains, however, what are we the people going to do about it?

Want more? How about this from the same Toronto Star article?

In one $2.6 million sponsorship deal at a Montreal amusement park from 1997 to 2001, Boulay's company charged taxpayers $315,000 in commissions, then turned around and charged the organizers a commission of $343,750 for delivering the money. He even charged back $800 ? plus a $125 commission ? to bring Montreal Alouettes cheerleaders to one pro-Canada event at that park.

But Boulay defended his business practices and denied using his Liberal connections for profit. He is the third witness to deny key parts of the testimony from Brault, who has alleged federal Liberal organizers demanded more than $1 million from Groupaction, sometimes in cash, in return for getting government business.