World

Chretien Coughs Up Documents

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

March 23, 2001 / 1:08 PM EST / CBS

Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien, bowing to concerted opposition pressure, released private documents Tuesday in a bid to refute charges he may have improperly pulled political strings to minimize losses in a business deal in his home town.

But opposition parties said the veteran Liberal leader had not done enough and they demanded an independent inquiry into a rumbling scandal that is slowly poisoning Canadian politics.

The affair centers on the prime minister's sale of a 25 percent stake in the Grand-Mere Golf Club in his electoral district of Shawinigan, Quebec.

Chretien sold the stake to businessman Jonas Prince in November 1993, but informed federal Ethics Counselor Howard Wilson in January 1996 that he had not been paid.

In a move that opposition parties say was a gross conflict of interest, Chretien then lobbied the president of the Business Development Bank — a government agency — to grant a loan to the Auberge Grand-Mere hotel next to the golf course.

Critics say the $395,000 loan could have affected the value of the golf course, thereby ensuring Chretien — who denied for two years he had talked to the bank — did not lose money until Prince paid him for the stake.

But Wilson, who presented 11 documents pertaining to the sale to reporters, said it was crystal clear that Chretien had ceased to own the shares in November 1993. Last year Wilson said Chretien had not been guilty of conflict of interest.

"Everything in this…series of documents, signed by all the relevant parties, has to be considered to be proof positive," he told a news conference.

Stockwell Day, leader of the official Canadian Alliance opposition, said Chretien had to do much more than just present a few selected documents.

"The prime minister still has not come clean," Day told a raucous session of Parliament.

"Now we have the appearance of the prime minister's office being used to expedite a private business deal. First the prime minister denies lobbying for money for the hotel next to the golf course, then he admitted, then he tried to cover it up, and that is wrong," Day said.

Chretien, in words that prompted an ovation from Liberal members of Parliament, demanded Day apologize for making false accusations.

Chretien said Canada had other problems to deal with, prompting Bloc Quebecois member of Parliament Michel Gauthier to retort: "The biggest problem in the country…is the lack of credibility of the leader."

Chretien was eventually paid in September 1999 when Prince sold the stake to another businessman. Wilson said Chretien had in fact lost money on the deal, receiving only C$255,000 rather than the C$300,000 he had originally agreed with Prince.

The furor, dubbed "Shawinigate" by the media, has dominated Canadian politics for weeks and soured relations between the Liberals and the four opposition parties.

Last week, Conservative leader Joe Clark said it was noclear that Chretien had violated a federal conflict of interest code and should step aside at least until the matter is cleared up.

"My own view is he should stand down as prime minister until this is dealt with fully," Clark, a former prime minister, said in a hastily-arranged news conference.

"I can't recall a time in Parliament before where we've had a situation where the conduct of the prime minister himself has been called so blatantly into question, that there has been such a string of denials that is now denied by the facts," said Clark, first elected to Parliament in 1972.