Gomery Commission

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The Gomery Commission, formally the Commission of Inquiry into the Sponsorship Program and Advertising Activities, is a federal Canadian commission headed by the retired Justice John Gomery for the purpose of investigating the sponsorship scandal, which involves allegations of corruption within the Canadian government.

The Commission was called by Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin in February 2004 soon after the Auditor General of Canada's report that found much was amiss with the Sponsorship Program. The Commission was part of Martin's active campaign to be seen as working to solve the problem.

Contents

1 Mandate

2 Proceedings and testimonies

3 Endnotes

4 External links

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Mandate

The Commission had a broader mandate and greater resources than the Auditor General, and most importantly could look beyond government to the advertising agencies that had received the Sponsorship dollars. The Commission's mandate is set by Section IV, clause I of the Inquiries Act which states: "The Commisioner [is] directed to perform his or her duties without expressing any conclusion or recommendation regarding the civil or criminal liability of any person or organization and to ensure that the conduct of the inquiry does not jeopardize any ongoing criminal investigation or criminal proceedings"¹. Put into plain English, the Commission's terms of reference is only to determinate whatever there were problems with the federal sponsorship program in Quebec between 1995-2003; the Commission is expressly and explictly forbidden when it issues it's final report to name any individuals or organizations that may have been responsible for the alleged fraud that occurred during the sponsorship program.

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Proceedings and testimonies

The Commission began in Ottawa, meeting in the Old City Hall. The hearing opened in September of 2004. The first to testify was auditor Sheila Fraser who reported the findings of her earlier investigations. The first part of its investigation was of the political direction of the project. Most of the top officials involved were called to testify.

In an unprecedented event the inquiry saw the testimony of two Prime Ministers in February: Paul Martin and Jean Chr�tien. The testimony of Chr�tien was much anticipated. In December Chr�tien's lawyers had moved to expel Justice Gomery due to comments he had made to a National Post reporter that the lawyers argued showed that Gomery was biased against Chr�tien. These included Gomery commenting that golf balls marked with Chr�tien's name, which had been paid for by the sponsorship program, were "small town cheap." Gomery rejected the calls to recuse himself setting up a confrontation between him and Chr�tien. At the end of his day of testimony Chr�tien closed his statement by pulling out a series of golf balls bearing the name of American presidents and asking if each of them were "small town cheap." The stunt was the focus of all the media reports.

After the prime ministers testified, the hearings moved to Montreal to investigate where the money had gone. The hearings in Ottawa had uncovered little more than was in the Auditor General's report. The AG did not have the authority to investigate outside of the government, and the look into the advertising companies in Montreal uncovered a great deal of new and explosive allegations. The most important of these were by Groupaction executive Jean Brault who recounted a series of crimes committed to direct government money to Liberal party supporters. These caused a sharp fall in the support for the governing Liberals and has put their government in jeopardy.

The inquiry hearings are scheduled to end in late May 2005, with the final report to be released in December. Paul Martin has promised that an election will be called within thirty days of the final report. While some speculated that the government would be forced into a snap election by the opposition Conservatives and Bloc Québécois before then, the Liberals narrowly avoided it on 19 May 2005, and it seems unlikely they will fall before Gomery publishes his findings.

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