I’ll be updating this as the ethics committee continues to grill Mulroney – not as frantically as Kady O’Malley, but updates will be forthcoming. From what I’ve seen so far, Brian is certainly in fine form – despite his age, he’s still an all-star at this. Among the highlights so far:
-“My biggest mistake in life, by far, was ever agreeing to be introduced to Karlheinz Schreiber in the first place,” Mr. Mulroney said. The former prime minister said his second biggest mistake was accepting cash payments from Mr. Schreiber. I’m sure Canadians would have a wide range of options for choosing mistake number 3.
-Brian says he only got $225,000, not $300,000. Well, then, that makes the whole thing seem kind of trivial, eh?
-Mulroney admits he got the first cash payment while still a sitting MP, although says no business was discussed at Harrington Lake with Schreiber while still PM.
-The opposition MPs are trying to bring the wireless lobbying issue into this, despite obvious objections by the Tories on the committee. Mulroney says he never met with Bernier while in Industry, although he did meet with him when he was in Foreign Affairs.
-The tax issue seems to be the area where Mulroney is weakest in his response. He claims the money was for “expenses” alone so that technically income. Eek! Over to you Warren:
“What “expenses” would necessitate $300,000 in advance? Was he travelling to the moon and back, on a gold-plated rocket encrusted with jewels? Was he staying in hotels on Venus, for $30,000 a night?”
Updates:
10:29 am: Mulroney is just eating Sukh Dhaliwal alive. “May I just say that I thank the Liberal party for their strong defense of the GST” after asked if he paid GST on the $300,000 $225,000. Brian’s also far too smart to bite when asked to show how big the envelope of cash was.
10:46 am: The irshman Brian Murphy seems a little awe struck but maybe he’s just trying to disarm Brian with flattery. Mulroney re-emphasizes that he was not broke after he left 24 Sussex.
10:56 am: Closing statement. Cue the violins.
11:01 am: Szabo: “We’ve had a lot of conflicting testimony between our two witnesses.” No kidding. Looks like Brian will be asked to come back in February…assuming no election, of course.