[asia-apec 764] G&M: APEC: SolGen's Memory returns
Sharon R.A. Scharfe
pet at web.net
Wed Oct 7 22:38:50 JST 1998
Globe and Mail
October 7, 1998
THE APEC FUROR
The overheard remark: Minister's memory returns
Furor provokes Clintonesque Commons debate
Wednesday, October 7, 1998
DANIEL LEBLANC
With a report from Canadian Press
Ottawa -- The furor over comments attributed to
Solicitor-General Andy
Scott grew yesterday after he said he now remembers
the conversation in
question -- and that it was with an old friend -- but
denied that there was
anything improper in it.
The day took on a Clintonesque air as Mr. Scott said
he did not have an
"inappropriate conversation" about the APEC inquiry as
alleged by New
Democrat MP Dick Proctor on Monday.
In the House of Commons, Prime Minister Jean Chrétien
rejected calls
for Mr. Scott's resignation and linked NDP Leader
Alexa McDonough
with the reporting of a private conversation by
calling her Canada's Linda
Tripp, the woman whose secret taping of telephone
conversations
implicated U.S. President Bill Clinton in a sex scandal.
The NDP responded by releasing more notes of the two-hour
conversation that Mr. Proctor said he overheard last
Thursday on Air
Canada Flight 8876.
Two days ago, Mr. Proctor accused Mr. Scott, the
minister responsible
for the RCMP and the Correctional Service of Canada,
of prejudging the
results of hearings by the RCMP Complaints Commission
into the
handling of demonstrations at last November's
Asia-Pacific Economic
Co-operation summit.
Mr. Scott allegedly said in his overheard conversation
that one Mountie
would take the fall for the violent treatment of
protesters at the summit.
On Monday afternoon, Mr. Scott said he couldn't recall
his seatmate on
the flight to New Brunswick -- or even whether the
person was a man or
a woman. Yesterday, he said he was talking on the
plane with New
Brunswick lawyer Frederick Toole. Mr. Scott and Mr.
Toole have been
friends for about 15 years, and Mr. Toole is a member
of and a
contributor to the Liberal Party of Canada.
Mr. Scott said he remembered sitting next to Mr.
Toole, and the nature of
their conversation, Monday night after checking with
the person who had
picked him up at the airport.
According to Mr. Proctor, Mr. Scott told Mr. Toole on
the plane that "it
would come out [of the commission] that there was
excessive force used
by four or five Mounties over five minutes."
He also quoted Mr. Scott as saying: "Hughie may be the
guy who takes
the fall for this." Mr. Proctor believes this was a
reference to
Staff-Sergeant Hugh Stewart of the RCMP, who ordered
the use of
pepper spray to disperse protesters around the summit
site.
Asked whether he made this reference to "Hughie," Mr.
Scott said
yesterday: "Anything that would indicate that I was
predetermining an
outcome or claiming influence on the process simply
did not happen." He
said Mr. Proctor heard only "tidbits of words that
were floating around in
a noisy aircraft."
In his public statements about the controversy over
whether the Prime
Minister's Office was involved in the security
arrangements for the
summit, Mr. Scott has repeatedly said the APEC inquiry
must go ahead
unimpeded.
While Mr. Scott acknowledged talking about the APEC
inquiry on the
flight, he denied that he said anything that could be
seen as prejudging its
results. But his denials were not as much on the
content of his
conversation as on its potential impact or the way it
could be interpreted.
"I categorically deny that I engaged in an
inappropriate conversation that
would in any way prejudice the outcome of that
inquiry," he said.
In his efforts to prove that his notes of the
conversation were accurate,
Mr. Proctor released more details about them yesterday.
Mr. Proctor also said Mr. Scott made unflattering
remarks about principal
figures in the Airbus investigation, Frank Moores, a
former Conservative
premier of Newfoundland and an Ottawa lobbyist, and
German-Canadian
businessman Karlheinz Schreiber.
Both men, along with former prime minister Brian
Mulroney, were the
subject of an RCMP investigation three years ago into
alleged improper
payments in the sale of European-built Airbus jets to
Air Canada during
the mid-1980s.
No evidence of wrongdoing was uncovered and Mr.
Mulroney eventually
won a $2-million settlement and an apology.
"There was no reference to Airbus as such," Mr.
Proctor acknowledged
yesterday, but all the same, "Karlheinz Schreiber's
name came up .-.-.
Frank Moores' name came up."
Robert Hladun, Mr. Schreiber's Canadian lawyer, said
Mr. Scott's
remarks, if accurate, would be "highly inappropriate,"
and would raise
questions about potential political interference in
the Airbus investigation."
Mr. Moores was unavailable for comment but has denied any
wrongdoing.
The notes also quoted Mr. Scott as discussing the
prospects for a Liberal
comeback in the next federal election in Atlantic
Canada and saying that
he has a "standing offer" to be a special ambassador
to the United Nations
when he leaves politics.
In the Commons, Mr. Scott attacked Mr. Proctor's motives.
"I am personally offended that the honourable member
has chosen to
impugn my integrity, my ethics and my commitment to
this process,
particularly since these attacks were made by a
political opponent who
spent two hours eavesdropping on a private conversation."
Mr. Proctor stood behind his initial accusations, and
said he was
disappointed by Mr. Scott's denials.
"I think that the Solicitor-General is feeling
confident now that Toole has
come forward, written this type of letter. He says
it's Proctor versus the
Solicitor-General, and I'll take my chances. . . .
I've got the notes that I
heard him say. The Solicitor-General lied this morning
in the House of
Commons."
UPON FURTHER REFLECTION
"I do not know where the honourable member is getting
his information,
but I never said such a thing."
"I don't recall who I might have been speaking with on
the aircraft."
"I don't recall any of these kinds of conversation."
-- Solicitor-General
Andy Scott, Monday
"Mr. Speaker, I have flown back and forth from Ottawa
to Fredericton
300 times in the last five years. I know most of the
people on that aircraft
and I do not recall in each and every case who it is I
sat with. I inquired
and I found out."
"There were only two parties to this conversation,
myself and Mr. Fred
Toole."
"Mr. Toole is a very, very distinguished, credible
person."
"I said yesterday that I didn't believe that I had
done anything, and that is
confirmed by Mr. Toole and I think that now closes it."
-- Mr. Scott, yesterday
'THE LINDA TRIPP OF CANADA'
In the House of Commons yesterday:
NDP Leader Alexa McDonough: "Mr. Speaker, even the
Solicitor-General in this morning's carefully worded
statement did not deny
that he had made these prejudicial comments.
"In fact his failure to recognize that his
inappropriate remarks are
prejudicial, that they are prejudicing the inquiry, is
further evidence that he
cannot do his job. The Prime Minister has no choice
but to demand his
resignation. Why will the Prime Minister not do that?"
Prime Minister Jean Chrétien: "Mr. Speaker, I do not
intend to do so
because I am watching the leader of the NDP as her
party is once again
raising baseless allegations based on selective
eavesdropping by one of
her members for which she should once again apologize.
"I thought that the leader of the NDP had greater
ambitions than to
become the Linda Tripp of Canada."
TOOLE'S LETTER
Here is the text of a letter dated Oct. 5 that was
sent by New Brunswick
lawyer Frederick Toole to Solicitor-General Andy
Scott, who tabled it in
the House of Commons yesterday:
Dear Mr. Scott:
Further to our conversation of today, this letter
confirms that we were
seated together last Thursday, October 1, 1998, on a
flight from Ottawa to
Fredericton. We talked generally about a variety of
issues, including the
APEC situation.
I wish to state categorically that at no time did you
say anything which I
interpreted as an indication that the ongoing Public
Complaints
Commission Inquiry had been compromised or that its
outcome had been
predetermined.
Yours sincerely,
Frederick D. Toole
-- from Canadian Press
We welcome your comments.
Copyright © 1998, The Globe and Mail Company
All rights reserved.
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