The Gomery Inquiry is dealing an ace in the hole to the Prime Minister Paul Martin scandal-ridden Liberal Government of Canada.
While average Canadians and opposition parties were eagerly waiting for the Liberals to get their comeuppance in the tabling of the Gomery Report, the Liberals will be provided with an advance copy of Justice John Gomery's report on the sponsorship scandal.
The long-awaited report will be in Liberal hands one day before it is to be officially released at 10 a.m. on Wednesday morning.
Having an advance copy puts the Liberals--proven masters at the art of spin--in an advantageous position with friendly news media.
Indeed, the Liberal spin has already begun. When all three opposition party leaders demanded that Prime Minister Martin provide them with his advance copy, Martin had a pat sanctimonious answer.
Martin said by accepting the advance copy he is only following the wishes of Gomery and providing copies to the other leaders would be "meddling in the procedures recommended by the commission."
"It is Justice Gomery who has decided what process he is going to follow and we will follow his recommendations," Martin said.
as dastardly the deed, the Liberals, from the outset seemed able to trump any residue from the $100-million theft of public funds that came to be known as the adscam scandal.
Going to the polls, they even pulled off getting themselves re-elected, albeit in minority status after news of adscam filtered out to John Q, Public.
When the inquiry reached the testimony stage, former Prime Minister Jean Chrétien turned his testimony into a stunt using golfballs as props.
Down to the last one, journalists in the Canadian mainline media seemed to forget the rip-off of the Canadian taxpayer by filing stories lauding Chrétien for his successful attempt at one-upmanship against Justice Gomery.
"The week before he testified, Chrétien's lawyers argued that Gomery should be removed from the inquiry because he was biased against the former prime minister. at issue was an interview Gomery had done in January. (CBC New Online, Feb. 8, 2005).
"Gomery called Chrétien's decision to allow his name to be printed on a series of golf balls ‘small-town cheap'."
For his last question, Chrétien's lawyer asked the former prime minister whether he had ever received golf balls during his travels as prime minister.
Like a seasoned carnival huckster, Chrétien began pulling golf balls out of his briefcase.
as it happened, each was a gift from a person from a small town. The list included two President Bush's, former President Bill Clinton and former Vice President al Gore.
The show-off show-and-tell escapade, elbowed out the multi-million-dollar taxpayer rip-off, and virtually dominated the next day's headlines.
as smalldeadanimals.com lamented of the mainline Canadian media, "Not one of them–not a single one–stopped chuckling long enough to ask whether it's a wise tactic to attempt to embarrass and humiliate the judge who will be ruling on your involvement in a $100 million theft of public funds".
The comedy hour continues in Ottawa with a Goody Two shoes Martin claiming to be only following the wishes of Gomery in accepting the inquiry's advance copy.
Opposition leaders are seething that the Liberals have outfoxed them again,
Conservative MP Peter MacKay questioned the transparency of the process.
"Why would it be held back even a day while the government is given the opportunity to put the best possible face on what could be a scathing report about their own activities?" he asked.
The Liberals have another plus in that the $1 billion a year taxpayer- subsidized Canadian Broadcast Corporation (CBC) is back on the job after a recent strike.
It's a sad day for Canada when the highhanded Liberals can so agilely demonstrate that they can influence even the Law of the Land.
Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com
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