Wait for Gomery eh?

[Quest4Less]

From John Crosbie (Toronto Sun)

Martin doesn't explain that, according to the Inquiries Act, Justice
John Gomery cannot outline any conclusion about the civil or criminal
liability of any person or organization (the Liberal party or whoever).
Gomery is not permitted to reveal who carried out any theft or fraud or
corruption or who wrongfully misdirected public funds and passed taxpayers'
money on to the party or its workers or supporters.

The fact is, the final Gomery report will not provide the kind of answers
that the public is interested in. The public does not need to have this
report, if there is one, to make up their minds about what happened and who
was at fault and who were the villains. The facts are revealed in the
evidence.

DEPLORABLE CORRUPTION

Canadians should not forget that the Liberal party has governed Canada for
56 of the last 70 years. It is this lack of competition between political
parties that has led to the deplorable corruption and plunder now revealed
by Gomery.

Two months ago, Martin forced his finance minister, Ralph Goodale, to bring
in a budget reversing the canons of fiscal soundness Martin himself
practised under Jean Chretien. Goodale's original budget included a 10%
boost in federal spending, the largest increase since 1973-74, when Pierre
Trudeau accepted a Liberal-NDP coalition. Martin's deal with the NDP for
$4.6 billion in new spending brought the increase to 12%. The latest
spending spree puts it over 15%.

In another Mugabe-inspired parliamentary violation last week, Goodale tabled
a special spending bill based on the Layton-Martin budget agreement. This
legislation provides for a $4.5-billion slush fund that government can dip
into at will without parliamentary approval. As former finance official Don
Drummond said, "For years government has wanted an instrument that would
allow it to allocate spending without having to say what it's for. This act
will do it."

Are you going to allow this perversion of our democratic parliamentary
system to continue?

 

[xarir]

First off, a random point. The Gomery Commission transcripts can be read here.

Now to John Crosbie's point, it is true that the Gomery Commission will not make any recommendations on criminal culpability. The Commission will, however, make recommendations to prevent future mismanagement of programs. Specifically, the Commission may recommend:

i) Introduction of legislation designed to protect whistleblowers.
ii) Changes to the governance of Crown corporations
iii) Extension of the Access to Information Act to include all Crown corporations
iv) Changes to the accountability of Crown corporations
v) Clearer interpretation of the Financial Administration Act to all Crown corporations. This will include the capacity to enhance compliance and enforcement including recovery of lost funds and how to sanction former public servants in cases of wrongdoing.

While the criminal aspects of Adscam will need to be heard in a proper court of law, I personally think the recommendations of the Gomery Commission will be pretty important. In particular, I think that whoever forms the next government would be well advised to follow the recommendations and enact them into law.