MPs' tempers flare at House ethics committee meeting

Angry jeers and pencil-throwing ended a stormy meeting of the House ethics committee on Tuesday, as the session adjourned without debating a key issue on the agenda regarding the Mulroney-Schreiber affair. 

'You're a disgrace.'—NDP MP Pat Martin to ethics committee chair Paul Szabo

As the Liberal chair of the parliamentary committee, Paul Szabo, began wrapping up the morning's meeting, New Democrat Pat Martin interrupted in protest and tossed his pencil to the floor. Martin then rose from his seat and accused Szabo of "stalling" the meeting so that the clock expired before MPs were able to debate a motion that he had put on the agenda.

Other opposition MPs in the room were visibly annoyed and also began shouting.

"You're a disgrace," Martin said, pointing to Szabo before he left the meeting room.

"The clock was out," Szabo replied.

The CBC's Rosemary Barton, who was present during the committee meeting, said the hour-long session was bogged down by different motions concerning how wide-ranging the Mulroney-Schreiber affair should be.

"But before they could even get to that point, Mr. Szabo said that he felt perhaps they weren't admissible, and wanted the reasons why they would be explained."

Martin had wanted the parliamentary committee to debate a motion to summon former Tory prime minister Brian Mulroney and German-Canadian businessman Karlheinz Schreiber to state their cases in advance of the probe into the corruption charges opens.

'Most people were annoyed'

Instead, the debate on that issue will have to wait until Thursday, when the committee reconvenes.

"I think it's safe to say most people were annoyed," Barton said.

Martin had previously argued that Mulroney and Schreiber should be sought as witnesses as soon as possible before the public inquiry even begins. That inquiry could still be months away.

"The NDP has a motion to immediately move to calling [the] two witnesses before they decide on anything else — that is, the terms of reference for any kind of larger inquiry," CBC chief political correspondent Keith Boag explained from Parliament Hill earlier on Tuesday.

Boag said Schreiber's possible deportation to Germany would complicate the future public inquiry because Schreiber is a star witness and has threatened not to co-operate if he must leave Canada.

Under the NDP's proposal, Schreiber was to appear before the Commons ethics committee by as early as this Thursday for three rounds of testimony, to last two hours each.

"They're afraid that … they may lose the opportunity to question him," Boag said.

'Silliest thing'

It now appears Schreiber, who is the author of the corruption charges dogging Mulroney, will not be appearing so soon.

Mulroney would have his turn to speak on Dec. 4 for his own round of three sessions.

In a signed affidavit, Schreiber alleged that Mulroney never lived up to his end of a lobbying deal in which the former prime minister was to help him with business ventures in exchange for $300,000 in cash. Mulroney's spokesman, Luc Lavoie, said on Monday that Mulroney believed accepting Schreiber's money was "the silliest thing" he had done, but that he denied doing anything illegal.

Calls for the public inquiry were triggered when Schreiber alleged in the affidavit that the two men struck the deal in June 1993, two days before Mulroney left office.

Schreiber also alleged that a Mulroney adviser asked Schreiber to transfer money in connection with Air Canada's 1988 purchase of Airbus planes to a Mulroney lawyer based in Switzerland.

None of the allegations has been proven in court.

But because the accusations date back to the 1980s, Martin said the committee members could not agree on how wide-ranging the probe should be.

$2.1-million payout questioned

"We then came to the conclusion that perhaps we can just call the two witnesses … to appear before our committee quickly to help us determine the scope," Martin told the Toronto Star.

Meanwhile, opposition parties have attacked the Conservative government, saying that in light of new information about the relationship between Schreiber and Mulroney, Ottawa should re-examine whether it should have paid out $2.1 million to settle a 1995 libel suit in which Mulroney was linked to the questionable sale of Airbus planes in 1988.

During the trial, Mulroney testified that he had never struck any financial dealings with Schreiber.

Schreiber, who is currently being held in a cell at the Toronto West Detention Centre, is set to meet with his lawyers Tuesday to discuss the next steps in his battle to stay in Canada.

A date for the public inquiry has not yet been set, but University of Waterloo president David Johnston has agreed to act as the independent adviser to recommend the terms of reference for how the probe should be set up. Johnston is to submit his report by Jan. 11.