Professur
Well-Known Member
Conservative Peter MacKay said Bedard provided some valuable information about her time at Via Rail, where she was involved in sponsorship dealings. (CP)
OTTAWA (CP) - MPs of all political stripes had sober second thoughts Thursday, after Myriam Bedard's sensational allegations about the sponsorship scandal were flatly contradicted by the people she named as her sources.
Among the first to challenge Bedard's credibility was Liberal Shawn Murphy, who likened the furor over the former Olympian's remarks to a three-ring circus. "There were statements made by Ms. Bedard that did not have any form of evidentiary foundation," said Murphy.
"I as a member of Parliament basically ignored them. I thought other people would have ignored them."
Bedard stunned the Commons public accounts committee Wednesday by referring to "top secret" information that race driver Jacques Villeneuve had received $12 million US to wear the Canada logo on his uniform.
She also said she had been told of alleged drug trafficking at Groupaction, a Montreal ad firm at the centre of the sponsorship affair.
For good measure -and straying far beyond the ostensible subject at hand - she observed that former prime minister Jean Chretien decided not to go to war in Iraq because of advice offered by her husband Nima Mazheri.
The Villeneuve allegations were vehemently denied by a spokesman for the race driver - and by Bedard's own former agent, whom she had named as the person who provided her with the information.
Marc LeFrancois, former president of Via Rail and the supposed source of the Groupaction allegations, termed Bedard's testimony "crazy" and insisted he never told her any such thing.
Bedard would not elaborate on her testimony when reached at her Montreal office Thursday by Radio-Canada.
"The people on the committee are looking for answers and it's up to them to find the answers," she said Thursday.
Parliamentarians were left shaking their heads.
"In my view, our committee has no business pursuing any of that stuff at all," said Liberal Dominic LeBlanc.
'I worry immensely about the damage to people's reputations . . . . I worry about our process getting off the rails."
Conservative Peter MacKay said Bedard provided some valuable information about her time at Via Rail, where she was involved in sponsorship dealings.
But he was skeptical of the claims about Villeneuve and Groupaction.
"I don't think we should be thrown off track by this," said MacKay. "It's really a sub-plot to the more important issues - the missing funds, the way the sponsorship program was operated."
New Democrat Judy Wasylycia-Leis suggested the committee could look further into Bedard's allegations "at some point, if we have the time."
But like MacKay she saw the main task as tracking high-level political influence over the sponsorship program that funnelled $100 million to Liberal-friendly ad firms.
Even John Williams, the Conservative committee chairman who described Bedard on Wednesday as a credible witness, was backtracking Thursday.
Considering the litany of denials, said Williams, "perhaps that credibility is very much in question. But I always take testimony at face value when it's presented."
Committee sources said Bedard was interviewed in private by a subcommittee before her public testimony. But much of what she said Wednesday came as a surprise.
Williams dismissed suggestions that MPs should do a better job of pre-screening witnesses before allowing them to go public with unsubstantiated allegations.
"This is not a court of law, this is a court of public opinion," said the chairman.
"I do not want to start pre-screening and massaging and censoring (testimony) by anybody. That would be an affront to the democratic system."
Bedard says she was forced from her marketing job at Via in January 2002 after raising questions about some of the Crown corporation's dealings with Groupaction.
LeFrancois has since been fired as Via president, as was board chairman Jean Pelletier for publicly belittling Bedard's claims and suggesting she was under psychological strain.
Prime Minister Paul Martin said when he gave Pelletier the boot that he feared the remarks about Bedard would deter others from coming forward with knowledge about the sponsorship scandal.
On Thursday, however, Martin refused to venture an opinion on the credibility of Bedard's latest claims.
"I'm not in any position to comment on that," he said.
Maybe she is just a single mother looking to return to the spotlight.
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