Key Adscam witness says he 
has memory problems 
by Romeo St. Martin

[PoliticsWatch Updated 6:05 p.m. April 14, 2005]

Liberal organizer Jacques Corriveau testifies at the Gomery inquiry in Montreal on Thursday.

OTTAWA  — Near the end of his first day on the stand at the Gomery inquiry in Montreal, a key witness in the sponsorship scandal and friend of former prime minister Jean Chretien told the judge that his memory is not that good for a variety of reasons. 
  
"There are certain things I can bring to mind very quickly and other things that it may not be possible for me," Jacques Corriveau told Justice John Gomery. 

Corriveau also said his age and the fact he takes "certain prescription drugs and that causes certain problems of memory and concentration" may also be a factor in memory problems he will have in the coming days in the witness chair. 

Corriveau has become a key figure in the inquiry since it moved to Montreal and two other ad agency executives have testified that his firm, Pluri Design, submitted fake invoices in order to receive payment in return for gaining firms sponsorship work. 

Previous testimony suggests Corriveau's firm billed over $6 million in sponsorship subcontract work that Jean Brault of Groupaction and Luc Lemay of Groupe Polygone sent his way. 

Both Brault and Lemay said Corriveau did no work for the subcontracts. 

Brault testified that Corriveau would refer to his subcontract payments as money for "The Cause," which Brault said he understood to mean the Liberal Party. 

On the witness chair Thursday, Corriveau denied ever using the phrase "The Cause," saying it was not part of his vocabulary.

Previous testimony from former public works minister Alfonso Gagliano suggested that the Liberal party owed Brault money for work he conducted on the 1997 election campaign. 

Nearly six months after the election, Corriveau met Gagliano and Jean Pelletier, chief of staff for Chretien, to discuss the Liberals' overdue election bill.

"The party had not yet paid his bill and he met with Mr. Pelletier to put on pressure," Gagliano testified. "This represented considerable sums of money."

Documents tabled at the inquiry on Thursday shows Pluri Design's revenues skyrocketed in 1998 to $2.4 million from $708,000 the previous year. 

Pluri Design earned a total of $11 million over a 10 year period beginning in 1993. From 1995 to 2004, Corriveau himself earned $4.4 million according to documents tabled at the inquiry. 

Corriveau also downplayed his ties Chretien, saying he was a friend of the former prime minister but wasn't "close." He also said he never discussed sponsorships with the former PM. 

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