Chretien drops Gomery challenge

[kimmy]

Yahoo news: Chretien drops federal court bid to remove Gomery

I wonder if he had any encouragement from current Liberals? I could see a conversation going something like...

PMPM: "Please drop your case to have Gomery removed."

Chretien: "No."

PMPM: "Please?"

Chretien: "No."

PMPM: "Please?"

Chretien: "No."

PMPM: "Please?"

Chretien: "No."

PMPM: "Please?"

Chretien: "No."

PMPM: "Pretty please?"

Chretien: "Welllll maybe."

Although the bid could be resumed later, I kind of doubt it will be. The article states:

Lawyers for the former prime minister issued a release Monday saying "it is too late to replace the commissioner."

Translated: "it is too late to prevent Brault from testifying."

-k

[August1991]

Translated: "it is too late to prevent Brault from testifying."

Huh? How about: "Thanks, Jean."

I suspect Martin approved of Chretien's moves to have Gomery removed - maybe Martin and Chretien even agreed on it.

If Chretien argues that Gomery is biased, then that gives the public impression that Gomery is doing an honest job. So, Chretien makes some legal moves that go nowhere and then backs off.

----

More generally, I am reminded of a post by TalkNumb several days ago concerning the perception in English Canada of this scandal. The Gomery Commission has created, as the PMO intended, an endless parade of French (and Italian) names, all taking place in Montreal, describing complicated and contradictory accounts of contracts that may or may not have been signed properly. The mind numbs.

All sensible politicians choose this strategy when faced with scandal. When in doubt, mumble.

I think it would take some very enterprising journalists, or a turncoat from the Liberal Party, to expose what has happened. Canada doesn't have either.

IOW, it looks now that PM PM imay get away with this - except maybe in Quebec. But the federal Liberals, indeed federalism itself, never had the same image as it has elsewhere in Canada.

Martin is a political operator and he and his staff have been manipulating a scandal as best they can. But he's not yet out of the woods.

When Nixon appointed Archibald Cox, or Clinton appointed Ken Starr, both Presidents were hoping that the special prosecutors would provide the same service as Gomery has ultimately provided PM PM: Nitty-gritty bean-counting that quickly bores everyone to death.

[Guest eureka]

Get away with what?

I am already bored to death with this. The unremitting ignorance shown by theose who would believe in mass corruption serves only to confirm that people believe what they want to believe. Truth is inconvenient and requires more thought.

Canada is not rife with corruption in government circles. There is still no evidence at all of political involvement of any consequence. Canada has, since the efforts of the Chretien administration, worked at trying to eliminate the possibility of fraud and corruption as far as it can. That has been on both the provincial and federal level,

I think that the reaction of Quebeckers shows how easy it is for demagogues to persuade a gullible populace. Totalitarianism is always just below the surface.

Quebeckers are incensed in spite of the evidence not because of it. They, like August, want to think ill of federalists.

[Newfie Canadian]

Chretien drops Gomery challenge, Da Little ____ from Shawinigan relents.

Not so much.

Chretien to launch new challenge to Gomery

The lawyers are expected to table a 97-page motion tomorrow demanding that Justice John Gomery ban any attempts by his four commission lawyers to influence the final report.

They argue that the former prime minister has the right to defend himself, and that he would be unable to do so if inquiry lawyers plead their case privately in written submissions.

I thought he gave up too easily.