Lapierre denies Liberals source of Gomery leak   
by Romeo St. Martin

[PoliticsWatch Updated 6:10 p.m. October 18, 2005]

OTTAWA  — Prime Minister Paul Martin's Quebec Lieutenant, Jean Lapierre, denied Tuesday that a leak about the details of Justice John Gomery's fact finding report on the sponsorship scandal originated with the Liberal government.    

"No, the government doesn't have the report," Lapierre told reporters after question period.

"We don't even know when we're going to get it. We know the deadline. But we don't know how and when we are going to get our copy."

Gomery is scheduled to issue his report on November 1, but the public got what appears to be a sneak preview of some of his findings in a story published in the Toronto Star Tuesday morning. 

The story by columnist James Travers is extremely vague about where the information came from. 

The words "sources" or "documents" do not appear and there are no quotes. 

It is not clear whether or not Travers read documents or was informed in a broad sense about what was in the report. But during an appearance on CBC Newsworld late Tuesday afternoon, Travers said it was based on "getting on the phone and talking to people."

"It wasn't a singular source and it wasn't a document delivered to me," Travers said.

Travers' story sounds conclusive on some counts -- the blame will be laid "on a group of loyalists clustered around former prime minister Jean Chrétien" - but inconclusive in others, describing how Gomery must "piece together the evidence."

The Gomery leak is also being viewed as "better news" for Martin than Chretien, according to Travers. 

"By focusing tightly on those around Chrétien, the report both substantiates Martin's insistence he was out of the sponsorship loop," he wrote. 

That particular line had some reporters speculating in Ottawa Tuesday afternoon about who was Travers' source and whether one of his sources was giving him a spun version of the report. 

When asked if he believed the Gomery leak was a spin job from the Martin people, Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe said, "I don't know, certainly not Mr. Chretien's people. That's for sure."

Duceppe said he would wait for the final report and would not comment on things that are not official. 

NDP Leader Jack Layton said even if the Star story is accurate it's still not good news for the PM. 

"It's bad news for the Liberal party because it shows they can't be trusted with our money and I doubt Canadians will want to give them a fifth turn at bat … based on this kind of evidence," he said after question period.

"It's the same political party that chose Mr. Chretien and chose Mr. Martin. And not only that we've had Mr. Dingwall's scandalous behaviour under the purview of Mr. Martin, so clearly they're not serious about doing anything about it. They're just serious about trying to avoid blame."

The Star story said Gomery started to shift his attention away from cabinet ministers and focus on the Centre because of the testimony of Chretien's unity minister Stephane Dion, who told Gomery he was vaguely aware of the program. 

Dion appeared at the inquiry on January 25th, weeks before Chretien and Martin appeared and months before Groupaction president Jean Brault's shocking revelations. 

During his testimony commission lawyer Guy Cournoyer asked Dion when was the first time he recalled the sponsorship program being raised at a cabinet meeting. 

"The first note I got was on July 30, 2001," he said. Prior to that Dion said he was "almost certain" he never received any briefing notes about the program. 

He was also asked when he discovered how the program operated and was funded. 

"I found out many years later when these issues became public issues," Dion said. 

And Dion said he was not aware, as Chretien and his supporters have argued, that the program was crucial for the Liberals' unity efforts. 

"I can assure you, however, that, at the time, it was just one program among others. What would have really surprised me at the time would have been if someone had told me that a sponsorship program had been positioned at the very centre of measures for strengthening a country's unity," Dion testified.   

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